Support for Brexit was higher among those who identify as English rather than British, even after accounting for relevant economic factors.

Much of the initial analysis of Brexit concentrated on the populist revolt of those ‘left behind’ by the benefits of Europeanisation and globalisation.

But it can be viewed too as a logical consequence of an intensification of English nationalism since the 1990s.

Far from being parochial ‘Little Englanders’, elite Brexiteers sought to lessen the rupture of leaving the European Union by suggesting a return to trade and security alliances with true friends and traditional allies in the Anglosphere.

AIIA Victoria welcomes back Dr Ben Wellings for an analysis of the causes and consequences of the Brexit vote. Placing English nationalism at the explanatory centre of Brexit, he will explain why identity trumped interests in the UK, and how this major re-orientation of British politics and the European regional order will have significant consequences for Australia.

Dr Ben Wellings is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations. He is an expert on Brexit and the politics of nationalism and Euroscepticism in contemporary Europe. Ben Wellings comments regularly on Brexit, English nationalism, Euroscepticism and the politics of the European Union. Before joining Monash University in 2013 he was the Convenor of European Studies at the Australian National University from 2004. His publications include English Nationalism and Euroscepticism: losing the peace (Oxford: Peter Lang Ltd, 2012) and English nationalism, Brexit and the Anglosphere (Manchester University Press, May 2019)

For more information about this event please visit the following webpage:

https://aiiavic.tidyhq.com/public/schedule/events/23756-brexit-as-english-nationalism-england-euroscepticism-and-the-anglosphere