impEct - intercultural & multidisciplinary papers European contributions - Dortmund Institute for European and International Business - No. 11 / 2020 Out of the Rift into the Unknown - A Survey of the BREXIT Process Erhard Juerke University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund Abstract: Brexit is well under way and a lot of people on the continent cannot understand what has been going on in the UK. The decision to leave the EU is still widely perceived as an irrational and irresponsible result of a campaign directed by a circle of traditionalist eccentrics. The aim of this article is to trace the hidden rationale of the process that received momentum in the course of widening rifts between the UK and the EU at the international level and between traditionalist and modernist social groups inside the UK. The rifts laid the ground for a populist narrative which played a key role in the successful, though by no mean inevitable, outcome of the long-drawn Brexit campaign. In the final chapter the article explores the impact of the Brexit decision and the future options for Britain’s role in Europe. Introduction In many respects the final years of the last decade were marked by a critical turning point in the history of relations between Great Britain and Europe. At the time of writing it is a near certainty that Brexit will happen, accompanied by seemingly strong, if not growing, support for the crude exit strategy of the Johnson government and an equally strong disbelief in the rationale behind this in the countries on the continent. It may be assumed that a rift of such massive dimensions, when put to close scrutiny, is likely to highlight significant differences in perspective amongst the long-term partners. 1 impEct - intercultural & multidisciplinary papers European contributions - Dortmund Institute for European and International Business - No. 11 / 2020 The objective of this article is to present Brexit as a possible, yet by no means inevitable, outcome of a historically grown constellation in social, economic and political terms. The sur- vey begins with an exploration of the separation process in the analysis of British exceptionalism in the context of the historic development of relations between Britain and the European Union (EU). Proceeding from this analysis, there will be some reflections on the phenomenon that the essentially myth-based pro-Brexit narrative struck such a strong chord within large parts of the British population. The final part will assess some of the concepts for pathways towards redefining the relationship between Britain and Europe in the future. In pursuing these aspects, the article will to a large extent draw from four recent books on the subject. Two of these focus on British-European relations: -Jeremy Black: Britain and Europe: A Short History. London 2019: Hurst & Co. (-B- in the references); -Brendan Simms: Britain’s Europe. A Thousand Years of Conflict and Cooperation. London 2017: Penguin Books (-S- in the references). The other two, both written by authors with long political experience, deal more closely with the actual Brexit process: - Ivan Rogers: 9 Lessons in Brexit. London 2019: Short Books ( -R- in the references); - William Waldegrave: Three Circles into One. London 2019: Mensch Publishing (-W- in the references). The context is provided by articles from the Guardian Weekly newspaper (-GW- in the references, alphabetical list below the article.) The History of Britain in Europe There have been few phases in European history in which Britain (or until 1707 England) has not been involved in or impacted by developments on the continent. Key chapters like the Nor- 2 impEct - intercultural & multidisciplinary papers European contributions - Dortmund Institute for European and International Business - No. 11 / 2020 man Conquest, the Hanoverian Kings, Waterloo, Trafalgar, Verdun or the Battle of Britain call to mind that, even if not all of these provided grounds for harmonic relations, they do serve as strong indicators that British and European history cannot really be separated. This remains true in spite of the long and deliberate cultural separation that has also permeated political atti- tudes and became manifest in the frequent examples of British politicians’ lack of interest in and understanding of continental matters (B 144). Black distinguishes four defining elements of Europe, that have served to at least provide the British with a rough mental cartography (B 205). A relatively imprecise geographic view plus a similarly problematic value and ideology dimension manifest the general European orientation. This is to be distinguished from membership in the EU, implying participation in a framework of legal, administrative and political institutions, which for him are frequently not fit for purpose and whose ultimate objective raises manifold doubts. For Black the EU, as it is not synonymous with Europe, clearly requires a different sense of identity (B 206). Simms is right to point out that there have been strong views on the EU in Great Britain and vice versa since the beginning of the European integration efforts, but that these, until recently, have never been at the heart of British minds (S 196,247). Economic interests have been at the forefront for most of the time, with any further political integration initiatives regarded with strong suspicions. This has been true for traditionalist forces in the Tory party, but certainly also for the left wing of the Labour Party, which still perceives the EU as an undemocratic capitalist bulwark against a pressurised working class. Waldegrave alludes that it may have been the lack of interest and understanding in European affairs that led British politicians to largely ignore the passage in the Treaty of Rome that explicitly stated the founding members’ objective of an “ever closer union among the European peoples” (W 12p.). In any case, with few exceptions, a sequence of governments from both 3 impEct - intercultural & multidisciplinary papers European contributions - Dortmund Institute for European and International Business - No. 11 / 2020 major parties appeared to agree on the irrelevance of integrationist continental ambitions and vied for membership in order to join the economic bandwagon, partly to make up for the loss of influence in terms of the commonwealth and relations with the US. Arguably de Gaulle’s objections to British entry into what was then still the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1962 and 1967 served to feed anti-European sentiment, but this did not tarnish for good the attractions of European cooperation. Under prime ministers MacMillan, Heath, and Wilson the increasing loss of British influence in world affairs, both politically and economically, fostered a growing interest in the modernisation opportunities provided by the EEC. Issues with the Common Agricultural Programme (CAP) and the European Communities Act, which gave EEC law primacy over British law, resulted in public opinion volatility, which was later somewhat soothed by the 1975 referendum, in which 65 per cent of the electorate came out in favour of continued membership. The 1980s, with the Thatcher government’s aggressive economic agenda and a profound distrust of all EEC activities going beyond business interests, did much to give new momentum to the sceptical forces in the Tory party. Under Labour prime minister Blair there ensued a short-lived ‘British moment’ in the European Union (EU), a fleeting period of harmony in which ‘Cool Britannia’ appeared to be at the vanguard of the modernisation efforts (S 205). It was not to last. Blair’s endeavours to combine the EU engagement with the special US relationship resulted in his ignominious downfall in connection with the war on Iraq. What remained was an emerging liberal cosmopolitan culture in and around London, which provided a counterpoint to the traditional identity that was increasingly pressurised. (B 183) The UK as a whole experienced an extended period of economic stagnation, uninspired political leadership, austerity and growing pressures on the welfare network. And the progressing European integration was more and more perceived to be part of the problem rather than a potential solution to a generally unsatisfactory state of affairs. British Exceptionalism: The Three Circles Simms draws a distinction between the founding acts of the UK and the United States on the one hand and the European Union on the other hand. The former, in 1707 and 1776, resulted 4 impEct - intercultural & multidisciplinary papers European contributions - Dortmund Institute for European and International Business - No. 11 / 2020 from existential threats and respectively culminated in ‘events’, whilst the latter lacked a similar initiation point and was organised as a ‘process’ (S 228 pp.), with a humble beginning and high ambitions for the future. To what extent the UK really emerged as a united political entity cannot be discussed at length here. No doubt the close ties between England and Wales have a long historic base, whereas the cultural differences with Scotland were submerged by common political interests but have remained strong throughout. And as Irish journalist Fintan O’Toole has pointed out in a number of publications, the English attitude towards Northern Ireland has always been marred by a strong colonialist undercurrent and never reached an ade- quate understanding of Irish specifics. Consequently, when categories like sovereignty and identity are analysed in this chapter, this implies a stronger reference to England rather than the other members or the United Kingdom as a political entity. Rogers defines sovereignty as ‘power of agency’, implying control over laws, borders and money, based on legitimacy and accountability (R 22p.). This sovereignty, no doubt strengthened by the geography, has over centuries nourished a unique set of ideologies and a specific institutional framework. For a long period of history this implied a deliberate separation from developments on the continent and a predominantly inward-looking culture (B 144). The traditional bases of British exceptionalism and the national narrative are well known.