Identification with Englishness (not class or age) offers the best clue to understanding support for Brexit / The black box of Brexit: identification with Englishness is the best clue

While commentators have often sought to explain Brexit as a form of resistance to globalisation, Jan Eichhorn argued we should treat such conclusions with caution since there were many factors at play when it came to people’s political choices. He highlighted that attempts to link Brexit to particular social classes or age groups underplayed much of the division within these groups over the EU, but that identification with Englishness offered one of the best clues to understanding voting behaviour during the referendum.

• Primary Source

LSE European Institute: LSE EuroppBlog, 11.0.16: Multiculturalism can foster a new kind of post-Brexit Englishness http://www.europeansources.info/record/multiculturalism-can-foster-a-new-kind-of-post-brexit-englishness/

ESO: In Focus: Brexit - The United Kingdom and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union/

Blog: LSE Brexit, 23.03.18: The black box of Brexit: identification with Englishness is the best clue http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2018/03/23/the-black-box-of-brexit-identification-with-englishness-is-the-best-clue/

Blog: LSE Brexit, 27.02.17: Brexit: a political and constitutional ramification of Englishness http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2017/02/27/brexit-a-political-and-constitutional-ramification-of-englishness/

The Guardian, 19.12.17: Britain’s problem is not with Europe, but with England https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/19/britain-problem-not-europe-england-brexit-englishness

European Public Law Vol.23, No.4, December 2017, p757–786: The constitutional implications of Brexit http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-constitutional-implications-of-brexit/

Welsh Brexit, 19.03.18: Devolution and Constitution. A constitutional continuum http://www.europeansources.info/record/devolution-and-constitution-a-constitutional-continuum/

Institute for Public Policy Research, 2016: 'Stop sneering at northern Brexit voters', think-tank warns http://www.europeansources.info/record/stop-sneering-at-northern-brexit-voters-think-tank-warns/

LSE European Institute: EuroppBlog, 06.09.18: Had austerity not happened, Leave support could have been up to 10% lower http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2018/09/06/had-austerity-not-happened-leave-support-could-have-been-up-to-10-lower/

LSE European Institute: EuroppBlog, 21.12.16: Don’t mention this around the Christmas table: Brexit, inequality and the demographic divide http://www.europeansources.info/record/dont-mention-this-around-the-christmas-table-brexit-inequality-and-the-demographic-divide/

---