David Cameron's catastrophic miscalculation: The EU Referendum, Brexit, and the UK's 'culture war'

Dorey, Peter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2763-1622 2021. David Cameron's catastrophic miscalculation: The EU Referendum, Brexit, and the UK's 'culture war'. Observatoire de la Societie Britannique 27 (2) , pp. 195-226. 10.4000/osb.5444

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Abstract

The United Kingdom had never been an enthusiastic member of the European Union, with membership mostly based on pragmatism rather than principle, and assumptions about the economic advantages to be accrued, rather than any commitment to political union or supranational governance. However, this lukewarm commitment to UK membership of the EU cooled between 2010 and 2016, both reflected and reinforced by internal developments inside the Conservative Party under David Cameron’s leadership, the electoral threat posed to the Conservatives by the increasing popularity of Nigel Farage’s United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), and a growing perception in many towns and communities that had been ‘left behind’ due to de-industrialisation, Globalisation, and an apparently out-of-touch London-centric liberal elite. These feelings of anxiety and anomie were further fueled by the austerity program imposed by Cameron’s coalition government, which exacerbated the economic and social problems of many citizens and communities in already impoverished parts of Britain.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
ISSN:	1775-4135
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 December 2021
Date of Acceptance:	26 April 2021
Last Modified:	02 May 2023 12:33
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/146166

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