The EU referendum was intended to answer, once and for all, the thorny question of Britain’s relationship with the European Union. But instead it has brought to the fore many even more fundamental questions. The status of Scotland within the United Kingdom is once again a pressing issue. Concern is growing over the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and with it the future of the Good Friday Agreement. The divide in values and outlook between a prosperous greater London and the rest of England, itself underscored by longstanding economic disparities, has become a looming chasm. Jennifer Jackson-Preece explains whether nationalism is to blame for these divisions

Jackson-Preece, Jennifer

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29/06/2016Is nationalism to blame for the post Brexit vote divisions?blogs.lse.ac.uk /brexit/2016/06/29/is-nationalism-to-blame-for-the-post-brexit-vote-divisions/The EU referendum was intended to answer, once and for all, the thorny question of Britain’s relationshipwith the European Union. But instead it has brought to the fore many even more fundamentalquestions. The status of Scotland within the United Kingdom is once again a pressing issue.Concern is growing over the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland,and with it the future of the Good Friday Agreement. The divide in values and outlook between aprosperous greater London and the rest of England, itself underscored by longstanding economicdisparities, has become a looming chasm. Jennifer Jackson-Preece explains whethernationalism is to blame for these divisions?Much of this was anticipated. Such divisions have become increasingly visible in British politics over the last twoyears. Here one can point to the Scottish Independence Referendum in September 2014, the Rochester and Stroodparliamentary by-election triggered by then sitting Conservative MP Mark Reckless’ defection to UKIP in November2014, and of course the May 2015 General Election.The stark generational divide brought to the fore by the EU referendum result was a surprise. A clear majority ofthose voters aged 49 and under backed Remain. Older voters supported Leave. The youngest voters were thestrongest backers of Remain. A whopping 75% of those aged 24 and under want a future inside the EU.Post referendum, this is not a country united under a common vision of a future outside the EU. This is a countrydeeply divided: by geography, by economic opportunity, by age, by race and ethnicity, and above all, by values. Theelection results speak volumes: 52% Leave to 48% Remain. And that schism at the heart of the United Kingdom isnot going away anytime soon. Here the trending Twitter hashtags tell a powerful story: #outisout, #notinmyname,#whathavewedone,  #votedLeave, #votedremain.Those who voted Leave look to have done so out of distrust for political elites and institutions in Brussels and inWestminster, deprivation caused by globalisation, and fear of migration. Those who voted Remain seem to have amore positive attitude towards globalisation, and with it the European Union. But many Remain supporters alsobelieve migration must be better managed.  These various positions were visible in my initial analysis of thereferendum campaign on Twitter. And they are echoed in the many traditional media articles, opinions andcomments before and after June 23.While the recent EU referendum can be read as a chapter in a British story, populist sentiments of this sort havebeen growing across the European Union.  The 2014 European Parliamentary Elections saw significant gains forEurosceptic and far right parties.  The French Prime Minister called these European Elections a ‘politicalearthquake’. The day after the EU Referendum, Marine Le Pen changed her social media profile photograph to aUnion Jack. Her demand: a Frexit to follow Brexit. Early warning tremors of more political instability still to come?Meanwhile in Britain, the political landscape has yet to stop shaking. The referendum campaign was British politicsat its worse. Twitter confirms it only served to increase distrust in politicians, a view now widely shared amongst theBritish electorate on both sides of the referendum divide. Post-referendum turmoil in both the governingConservative Party and the official opposition Labour Party adds to this distrust. The volume of chatter on social andtraditional media over who will lead each party in the coming months is huge.How can a state so fundamentally divided move forward to address the biggest political challenge of a generation?Undoubtedly, the rights and interests of both Leave and Remain must be included in any Brexit negotiations. But justwho will speak for whom is uncertain.Could Boris Johnson reasonably claim a mandate to speak for the 52%? Probably. But a prime ministerial1/3appointment chosen only by the Conservative party is not the strongest basis from which to lead the country in whatwill surely be a long and difficult negotiation.Could Jeremy Corbyn reasonably claim a mandate to speak for the 48%? With difficulty. His lukewarm support forthe Remain campaign calls this ability into question. For this reason, as I write, Corbyn is the target of a ShadowCabinet coup.Only the Liberal Democrats have unequivocally declared as a national pro-EU party in Westminster post-referendum.  Thousands have joined the ‘LibDems’ in the first few days post-Brexit, answering Tim Ferron’s call to‘stand with the 48%’.Cameron has assured that all devolved authorities, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales, and the Greater LondonAssembly, will have a role to play in the Brexit negotiations. The two largest demographic concentrations of Remainvoters, Scotland and London, have respectively Nicola Sturgeon and Saddiq Khan to advocate on their behalf. BothSturgeon and Khan are currently the focus of much traditional and social media attention. From this, it appears thatSturgeon and Khan may well find the 48%, wherever they live, looking to them for leadership and direction.Cameron has also said there would be a role for other regional governments, perhaps because the referendum votewas conducted through local district councils rather than parliamentary constituencies. As a result, districts votingLeave have MPs committed to Remain. Indeed, the majority of MPs are Remain supporters. The opposite is alsotrue. District councils voting overwhelmingly to Remain (as in St Albans City & District voting 62.7% Remain orHertfordshire North voting 54.4% Remain) find themselves represented in Parliament by an MP committed to theopposite position (in these examples, by Anne Main, MP for the St Albans constituency and by Peter Lilley, MP forthe Harpenden & Hitchin constituency, both declared Leave).How these many incongruities will result in a political voice for Leave and Remain voters during the negotiations isan open question. Do we need a Brexit government? A pro-EU opposition? A government of national unity? Eachhas been suggested.More fundamentally, does a negotiated Brexit require an explicit popular mandate beyond that provided by the EUreferendum of 23 June? David Cameron has said a second referendum is ‘not remotely on the cards.’ Nevertheless,more than three million apparently bona fide voters have signed an online petition calling for precisely that.According to the law, this petition must now be debated in Westminster.Meanwhile, Labour MP David Lammy has said Parliament should ‘stop this madness’ and vote against a Brexit.According to Lammy, the referendum was ‘advisory’ and so ‘non-binding’. The Lammy position is not widely sharedin Parliament. But there is an emerging consensus amongst politicians and pundits that a snap General Electionbefore the end of 2016 is increasingly likely. Referendum round two, by another name perhaps?And all this before one even begins to consider the millions who stood apart from the referendum, excluded by theEuropean passports that brought them to these shores. The many European citizens who live and work in the UnitedKingdom, contribute to British society and economy – in the NHS, in education, in finance, in transport, inconstruction, in the hospitality industry, in essential if less than glamorous public services like waste collection &recycling, the list goes on. They are still here. For now, they have a legal entitlement to live and work under EUrules. Cameron has promised such arrangements will not change anytime soon. But their future status isambiguous, subject to the outcome of Brexit negotiations.2/3Is nationalism to blame for these divisions?If there was a decisive issue that swung the undecided towards Leave, it was surely migration. In answer to that keyquestion ‘why is Britain leaving the EU’, I would be inclined to paraphrase former American President Bill Clinton:‘It’s migration, stupid!’But it would be wrong to conclude that widespread xenophobic nationalism has rent the United Kingdom asunder.The outpouring of public contempt for the now infamous Farage campaign poster contradicts any such claim. Leavesupports have joined Remain supporters in denouncing racism in all its forms. David Cameron’s first speech toParliament post referendum affirmed the value of toleration while condemning the recent defacing of a Polishcommunity centre as a hate crime.Cosmopolitan, multicultural Britain still thrives in London, even while English working class pride in the Cross of StGeorge flourishes in the North and East of England, and the Saltire flies high in Scotland. In other words, the post-referendum situation within the United Kingdom is complex.  A simple xenophobic nationalism type argument cannotdo it justice.Nationalism is an ideology that asserts that humanity is divided into nations, and that nations ought properly to formthe basis of independent sovereign states. Whether the nation itself is ethnic or civic, inclusive or exclusive, acreation of modernity or something deeply rooted in a distant past is much debated, and not just in academia. Thereare many such nationalisms active in Britain today, running across the full spectrum of possibilities fromcosmopolitan, tolerant and outward looking to parochial, intolerant and inward looking. The Leave campaign’s ‘takeback control’ rhetoric does not encompass them all.What we see in the United Kingdom post EU referendum is more than just a power vacuum, more than just politicaland economic uncertainty; it is a country in existential crisis. The crucial question that must now be answered iswhat kind of a country this shall be.  The EU referendum has laid bare several different Britains, each seekingdifferent futures. It is far from clear how, or even if, all of these different futures will be reconciled.This blog represents the views of the author and not those of the BrexitVote blog, nor the LSE. Image.Jennifer Jackson-Preece is Associate Professor of Nationalism, with a joint appointment in both the EuropeanInstitute and the Department of International Relations, LSE.Copyright © 2015 London School of Economics3/3

Is nationalism to blame for the post Brexit vote divisions?

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