Fighting terrorism at the local level: the European Union, radicalisation prevention and the negotiation of subsidiarity

Melhuish, Francesca; Heath-Kelly, Charlotte

doi:10.1080/09662839.2021.2009458

Cited by 6 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 29 publications

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“…Exploring additional nostalgic meanings of control can, however, provide an overdue corrective to these binaries. The term ‘control’ has long been associated with desires to restrict immigration and migrants’ rights, both in England and continental Europe (Baker-Beall, 2016; Squire, 2008) (Melhuish and Heath-Kelly, 2022). Indeed, references to the ‘loss of control’ frequently characterised high-profile English debates about immigration, race and the state of the nation in the years immediately preceding the Brexit referendum (Cap, 2017: 73; Kenny, 2014: 23).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Powellite nostalgia and racialised nationalist narratives: Connecting Global Britain and Little England

Melhuish

2023

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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This article explores how a Powellite form of nostalgia – named for the anti-immigration politics of former British MP Enoch Powell – connects seemingly contradictory nationalist narratives known as Global Britain and Little England. While the former is typically aligned with an expansive and buccaneering national biography, the latter is held to operate via a more defensive and exclusionary imaginary. This article challenges such a binary distinction by demonstrating how the two discursive strands are intimately connected by nostalgic views about white English racial dominance, cultivated during Britain’s pursuit of empire. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of verbal and visual sources from the Brexit referendum, plus 13 interviews with Leave campaigners, the article shows how Powellite nostalgia reproduces gendered and racialised colonial images of the nation amid immigration ‘crisis’. Despite the detoxifying effects of much post-referendum Brexit analysis, the article also demonstrates how Powellite nostalgia is shared across the Eurosceptic spectrum and within broader English culture, persisting into the post-Brexit era.

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