In a summer rife with Brexit drama, Boris Johnson encapsulated the mood of things when he resigned, with characteristic flair, from his post as foreign secretary. The Brexit “dream is dying,” he wrote in his July 9 letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, some two years after Britain voted to leave the European Union. Johnson was one of several pro-Brexit ministers and senior politicians to resign after May’s plans for a soft Brexit were adopted. Six months before the Brexit deadline of March 29, 2019, and a month before EU leaders meet to discuss the withdrawal treaty, turmoil still reigns. By mid August, echoing a growing theme of “Bregret,” the Independent’s petition for a second referendum had more than 500,000 signatures, and EU officials had expressed concerns about the possible collapse of the May government.
Who better to reflect on this ongoing tumult and the path ahead than the British political scientist and sociologist who coined the term “post...
Colin Crouch is professor emeritus of the University of Warwick. His latest book, The Globalization Backlash, is forthcoming from Polity Books.
Oonagh Fitzgerald is the director of the international law research program at the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in Waterloo, Ontario. She is the co-editor with Eva Lein of Complexity’s Embrace: The International Law Implications of Brexit, published in 2018 by CIGI Press.
Advertisement
Advertisement