Brexit Succeeded by Playing to Britons’ Imperial Nostalgia
Searching to Become “Great” Again, British Voters Ignored Their Empire’s More Recent History
Shortly after the result of Britain’s referendum on the European Union was declared last week, an academic colleague remarked to me, “the final curse of the empire is that the imperial dream is destroying the imperial heartland.”
Britain’s long association with imperialism was a major undercurrent in the campaign to leave the EU. Disregarding the realities spelled out by economists and others as to the impact of a leave vote, the Leave campaign emphasized what Britain might once again become, if freed from what they described as the yoke imposed …
