The UK’s opposition to European integration is still framed around the legacy of its past.

Britain’s membership of the European Union continues to be the object of public debate in the UK. Oliver Daddow assesses the history of British opposition to European integration, arguing that current debates are still themed around the legacy of the UK’s historical semi-detachment from Europe. He notes that the UK’s entry into the European Economic Community in the 1970s had as much to do with maintaining the country’s place at the top table of international diplomacy, as it did with the economic benefits expected from membership. The UK still appears to be unable to define its national identity with respect to the European project

GlobalBritain™: the discursive construction of Britain’s post-Brexit world role

Of the many dilemmas faced by Theresa May in negotiating Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, finding a workable narrative to explain Britain’s new world role post-Brexit proved one of the most intractable. She and her top government ministers alighted on the idea of “Global Britain”. Giving it the shorthand GlobalBritain™, the article interprets the vision using qualitative discourse analysis. It begins by positioning the article as a contribution to constructivist foreign policy analysis. Next, it explains the method used to select the relevant sources, develop the codebook and interpret the data. The third section outlines the policy architecture intended to make GlobalBritain™ practical reality. The final section demonstrates the rhetorical techniques through which GlobalBritain™ is framed as the story of Britain escaping a damaging period of confinement inside the EU “prison”. The central argument is that GlobalBritain™ puts a marked Eurosceptic twist on a long-standing UK grand strategy aimed at a global leadership role in which “Europe” has always played an ambiguous part. The conclusion critically reflects on the research we can now conduct to discover more about this foreign policy narrative in-the-making

Brexit and British exceptionalism: the impossible challenge for Remainers

Since 2016, a number of high profile ‘Revocateurs’, among them Tony Blair, Alastair Campbell and Andrew Adonis, have appealed for a fresh referendum on the EU in Britain. Leaving aside the complex practicalities and politics of the ‘neverendum’ idea, Oliver Daddow (University of Nottingham) argues there is no evidence either that Revocateurs were the victims in Act One of the ‘Britain and Europe’ story, or that they possess the credibility to play the heroes of Act Two. Revocateurs need to have more regard for history as it happened, not as they choose to rewrite it now

What I teach about Brexit to my (so far distinctly Eurosceptical) students

The MP Chris Heaton-Harris has asked vice-chancellors to disclose the names of academics teaching about the EU, and the content of their courses. Oliver Daddow (University of Nottingham) explains what students on his new Brexit: Foreign Policy and the Withdrawal from Europe course are studying. Many are indignant at the suggestion they would soak up 'Remain propaganda' and most currently think Britain should not have ..

Delusions and meddling: 30 years of Tory Euroscepticism are coming to the fore

The Conservative party’s relationship with the EU has come a long way since Edward Heath urged the UK to be ‘inside Europe’. Euroscepticism has a long history in the party, but the drift of public, media and Tory sentiment away from European unity crystallised in 1988 under Margaret Thatcher. The Brexit process is now bringing these tensions to the fore, writes Oliver Daddow. We can expect more – and even more damaging – spats like the one after the May-Juncker dinner in April

It's time designing for the colour blind became a more integrated component of academic and media training

Despite affecting one in 12 men and one in 200 women, colour blindness rarely features in discussions around access and inclusivity. Oliver Daddow explains how his preferred research methodology has been informed by his colour blindness, but also reveals the frustration he has felt since joining Twitter earlier this year. A variety of data representations are increasingly shared via social media, yet many are indecipherable to those with colour blindness. Bad graphic design prevents significant numbers of people from engaging with certain work because it limits access to the data. Generally, elements favourable for colour blind users are actually considered good design practice in a wider sense. Designing for colour blind users should help make your work more accessible to all users

'Brexitannia': an unsettling, beautiful insight into post-referendum UK

Brexitannia is a sociological portrait of post-referendum Britain. Travelling around the UK, its director invited people to talk about Brexit and left their responses to speak for themselves. Oliver Daddow (University of Nottingham) says the documentary is an unsettling insight into a Britain coming to terms with an imagined past, a leadership-less present and a manifestly uncertain future

Project Fear is the legacy of decades of Euroscepticism. Dare Cameron make a positive case for the EU?

It is 14 years since Tony Blair extolled the merits of the EU in his landmark Cardiff speech. Since then, writes Oliver Daddow, Euroscepticism has gradually come to dominate the political agenda, and the best David Cameron hopes for is a reluctant agreement to Remain from the media. Unless he dares to make the multilateral case for staying in Europe, the politics dubbed ‘Project Fear’ are bound to dominate the argument

A not so awkward partner: the UK has been a champion of many causes in the EU

Britain’s difficult relationship with its European partners has led often to it being described as ‘an awkward partner’, a term popularised by Stephen George’s 1990 book on UK-EU relations. But people often misquote George by calling Britain ‘the’ awkward partner. As Oliver Daddow and Tim Oliver argue, Britain is not the only awkward member of the EU. They do not deny that Britain can be more awkward than most, but we should not overlook the fact that other member states have also been awkward and that Britain’s relationship with the EU has often led to positive outcomes for both

Interpreting toxic masculinity in political parties: A framework for analysis

The term ‘toxic masculinity’ was coined in the 1990s by sociologists and psychologists. It has since been appropriated by scholars and commentators interested in gendered behaviours and outcomes in politics. However, despite the attention belatedly being paid to masculinities as part of that research, our appreciation of, specifically, toxic masculinity’s part in shaping political practices remains underdeveloped. This article proposes a move in this direction by designing a conceptual framework for exploring toxic masculinity inside political parties. We adapt findings from the original toxic masculinity literature to generate a series of indicators of toxic masculinity spanning the policy and discursive aspects of party political action. We then test the framework using a paired comparison of two parties of the populist right where we might expect to see relatively high levels of toxic masculinity: the Alternative for Germany and the UK Independence Party. Our empirical findings give us confidence that drawing on the concept of toxic masculinity can provide us with novel insights into the interplay between masculinity and political party cultures. We also hope that it will inspire a significant body of new research into toxic masculinity in political parties from across the party spectrum as well as globally