What has been the political impact of the Eurozone Debt Crisis in the UK? To what extent have the bank collapses and bailouts reinforced Britain’s Eurosceptic trajectory? In this revised and updated second edition Chris Gifford addresses these key questions reflecting on the Labour government’s approach to Europe while exploring the extensive mobilisation of Eurosceptic forces in opposition to the Conservative-led coalition government.
Offering a radical interpretation of a major political issue, Chris Gifford moves beyond existing narrative and institutional accounts of Britain and Europe to present a theoretically coherent and unique perspective on this troubled relationship. He acknowledges that populist Euroscepticism has become fundamental to constituting Britain and 'Britishness' in a post-imperial context, despite membership of the European Union. Organized chronologically, this interesting study provides lucid overviews of key periods in the British-European Union relationship. It combines political economy with political identity to illustrate how forms of Euroscepticism have become embedded across the British political class and culture. The book focuses not on outlining history or the impact of British integration on British institutions, but on the ways in which elite behaviour towards European integration should be analyzed as practices and discourses that use Euroesceptism to construct Britain and distinctive British political projects.
What has been the political impact of the Eurozone Debt Crisis in the UK? To what extent have the bank collapses and bailouts reinforced Britain’s Eurosceptic trajectory? In this revised and updated second edition Chris Gifford addresses these key questions reflecting on the Labour government’s approach to Europe while exploring the extensive mobilisation of Eurosceptic forces in opposition to the Conservative-led coalition government. The book examines the extent to which Euroscepticism has become dominant within both the Conservative leadership and the bulk of its parliamentary party and how this has affected the relationship of the coalition government with the European Union. By placing current attitudes to Europe in relation to the wider history of Britain’s post war interaction with its continental neighbours the author shows how British Euroscepticism is structural in nature and a persistent and institutionalised feature of UK Politics.
This book centres on the effects of the political and later economic crisis which seriously affected the European Union and its impact on the seemingly endless UK debate over Britain's position within the EU.
This timely contribution pulls no punches and views the UK as institutionally Eurosceptic across politics and society, from the press to defence. It represents a rich and original contribution to the emerging field of Eurosceptic studies, and a key contribution to this important issue.
This book provides a thorough examination of the phenomenon of Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom. It begins by arguing that Euroscepticism has roots as far back as when the process of European integration first came into being, and that it is not new in British politics. As a suggestion of opposition to the process of European integration, Euroscepticism dates back to the early days of founding a union in Western Europe. This book shows that Eurosceptic Britain is a product of a variety of factors particularly related to history, politics, culture, and geography. The unique specificities of the British political system comprise another important reason for Eurosceptic attitudes in Britain. The book also examines the relation between the Eurosceptic discourse in Britain and the structure of the European Union’s institutions. It argues that much of British Euroscepticism is about the way these institutions are operated. Most importantly, it highlights that the enduring Eurozone crisis has contributed to shaping recent varieties of scepticism towards the European Union as a whole, before concluding that Euroscepticism could not relocate Britain outside its natural place within Europe.
A fascinating new account of Britain's uneasy relationship with the European continent since the end of the Second World War, set against the backdrop of decolonization, the Cold War and the Anglo-American relationship. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon charts Britain's evolution from an island of imperial Europeans to one of post-imperial Eurosceptics.
Anthony Forster argues that euroscepticism, in addition to being a political stance, displays the seeds of becoming a new faith. Through a detailed analysis of British post-war politics, he shows the development of a core set of beliefs, a history of persecution, displays of moral rectitude in opposing Europe and the power of scepticism to change existing beliefs. This challenging new history of euroscepticism will be a valuable resource for undergraduate students of politics and European studies.
The accelerated pace of European integration since the early 1990s has been accompanied by the emergence of increasingly prominent and multiform oppositions to the process. The term Euroscepticism has appeared with growing frequency in a range of political, media, and academic discourses. Yet, the label is applied to a wide range of different, and occasionally contradictory, phenomena. Although originally associated with an English exceptionalism relative to a Continental project of political and economic integration, the term Euroscepticism is now also identified with a more general questioning of European Union institutions and policies which finds diverse expressions across the entire continent. This volume of European Studies brings together an interdisciplinary team of contributors to provide one of the first major, multinational surveys of the growth of these Eurosceptic tendencies. Individual chapters provide detailed examinations of developments in France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Switzerland. Overall, the volume draws a distinctive portrait of contemporary Euroscepticism, situating the phenomenon not only relative to the progress of European integration, but also in relation to broader questions concerned with the evolution of party politics and the reshaping of national identities.
What is Britain's future in Europe? This book revisits an old argument but for dramatically new times. The old argument is about Britain's 'semi-detachedness' from Europe and whether that posture could ever change. The new times are the crisis in the Eurozone and its wider impact on the European Union's future. While logic may point to deeper integration, the politics associated with the EU's problems make this a significant and possibly insurmountable challenge. Where should Britain stand? What future should Britain want for the EU? And how important is continued membership of the EU for Britain's future? This book offers new answers to these questions from the perspective of an author who has combined experience both at the heart of the British Government, as Tony Blair's European adviser and with years of understanding Europe from the inside - working at a senior level in the European Commission. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the future of British and European politics.
