Towards Exit from the EU: The Conservative Party’s Increasing Euroscepticism since the 1980s

Dorey, Peter

doi:10.17645/pag.v5i2.873

Cited by 26 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In the centre, there was support for the EEC based on a pragmatic acceptance of the potential benefits membership could bring in a context of economic decline and decolonisation. 11 This centrist position carried the 1975 referendum, with voters following the elite cues of the main parties and business leaders. 12 Comparing the 1975 and 2016 referendums, Robert Saunders explains that Britain in Europe were successful because their campaign focused on transactional benefits in a context of perceived economic crisis, political instability, and geopolitical danger at a time of relative decline.…”

Section: Euroscepticism In Contemporary British Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

A folk theory of the EEC: popular euroscepticism in the early 1980s

Moss

Clarke

2021

Contemporary British History

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The 2016 EU Referendum has renewed the focus of historians and social scientists on Britain's historical relationship with Europe as they aim to develop a better understanding of 'the road to Brexit'. The development of Euroscepticism in Britain has often been approached from an elite perspective, with a focus on the conflicting ideas and arguments between politicians, political parties, and the media. This article builds on existing studies by focusing on popular attitudes to Europe during the early 1980s. We analyse responses to a 'special directive' issued by the Mass Observation Project in the autumn of 1982 to mark the ten-year anniversary of Britain joining the European Economic Community (EEC). Reading this previously overlooked material for categories, storylines, and other cultural resources, we identify four key grievances MO panellists shared as common-sense evaluations of Britain's membership of the EEC. We argue these grievances constituted a wider folk theory of Euroscepticism circulating in British society six years prior to Margaret Thatcher's Bruges speech and subsequent debates about further integration in the early 1990s. In developing this argument, we contribute a better understanding of the content and origins of popular Euroscepticism in the 1980s.

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Section: Euroscepticism In Contemporary British Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

A folk theory of the EEC: popular euroscepticism in the early 1980s

Moss

Clarke

2021

Contemporary British History

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“…In 1974, the Labour government renegotiated the British membership in the EEC and committed to hold a referendum on the outcome (Miller 2015). When Thatcher came to power, she sought a rebate on the UK's payment to the ECC in 1984, and thought of Europe as an awkward issue to the whole UK (see Dorey 2017). In 1992, the UK left the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) it joined to maintain parity of the EU exchange rate.…”

Section: Contextualizing Brexit: the Eu-uk Relationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Discursive Formulation of Brexit: Decision, Opportunity and Needful Agreement

Almaged

2021

D&I

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This study sets out to examine the British Prime Minister Theresa May’s speeches delivered through her premiership. It aims to unveil the ideological discursive formation of Brexit after the referendum, and to investigate the way May squares the rhetoric to persuade the general public and the British/European political Elites to deliver the Brexit deal, though she campaigned pro-European Britain. I conduct a corpus-assisted discourse study approach, using discourse analysis methods and corpus linguistics tools for a case study of a purpose-built corpus of the Prime Minister speeches (2016-2019). The analysis revealed that the Brexit representation eschewed any identifi cation with ‘Europe’ and boosted Eurosceptic sentiments by (1) rationalizing the decision to leave the European Union; (2) proposing a better future after Brexit; (3) appealing to the British people’s emotion to support the Brexit deal.

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“…The campaign was polarised in two sides: the Remain and the Leave, corresponding to the two options for the question of whether the UK should Remain or Leave the EU. Its difficult to affect each British party to each side because some were divided, namely the Conservative and the Labour mainstream parties (although the Conservative official position was Remain and Labour also conducted the Labour In campaign) (Dorey, 2017; Hickson and Miles, 2018). Therefore, analysis will not rely on determining the dominant strategy by a party but by each side of the referendum.…”

Section: Analysing Brexit Campaign Use Of Social Mediamentioning

confidence: 99%

Should we stay or should we go: EU input legitimacy under threat? Social media and Brexit

Sebastião

Borges

2021

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Purpose The purpose of the paper is to reflect on the conditions of referenda as an EU input legitimacy, on the era of social media microtargeting campaigns. Taking the case of Brexit as an example, it takes conclusions for the democracy as an inherent value of the EU multilevel polity and opens prospects for possible solutions. Design/methodology/approach The paper is interdisciplinary based, complementing political science approaches on EU democratic legitimacy and communication studies on social media and political communication. These are the theoretical frameworks for analysing the case of Brexit referendum campaign, which is based on an empirical tracing of strategies and contents used. This empirical assessment is supported by official reports of the House of Commons and of the UK Information Commissioner’s Office and media news on the case. Analysis and discussion of it allows to come to conclusions. Findings Primary finding is that manipulation and disinformation occurred in Brexit campaign, creating a biased, fake and unbalanced information. Second main finding is that microtargeting and suppression of public debate enhances the typical polarisation of binary options on a referendum, and in the case of Brexit deepened the social cleavage that already shaped voter’s preferences, once information consumed by citizens functioned as “eco-chambers”, strengthening preconceptions. The ultimate conclusion in this case is a sign that social media can deepen the historical gap between elites and voters in the EU, with negative consequences for democracy and social legitimacy of the EU political system. Research limitations/implications The almost impossible access to the digital microtargeted adverts used in campaigns, to allow a more detailed analysis of the EU content issued. Practical implications Conclusions of this research are useful for politicians and advisers of policy-making to reflect on the future of the political system of the EU in terms of democracy, and the Europe as a whole and think about measures to be taken either on the level of improving legitimacy processes or regulation of digital media. Social implications If practical implications are taken from conclusions of this study, enhancing democratic processes, avoiding privacy data manipulation and providing accurate, impartial and trustworthy information to citizens public can be a social benefit achieved mainly through regulation. Originality/value Despite some studies have been released on Brexit referendum, they have mainly been single-disciplinary. This study innovates because it conciliates political science theoretical views with communications studies’ ones, to produce strengthened reasoning ground on the purposed of this research: to search evidence that new political communication strategies within the social media landscape can be of special negative influence in EU referenda and for the future of the multilevel polity.

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Towards Exit from the EU: The Conservative Party’s Increasing Euroscepticism since the 1980s

Cited by 26 publications

References 8 publications

A folk theory of the EEC: popular euroscepticism in the early 1980s

A folk theory of the EEC: popular euroscepticism in the early 1980s

The Discursive Formulation of Brexit: Decision, Opportunity and Needful Agreement

Should we stay or should we go: EU input legitimacy under threat? Social media and Brexit

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