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The United Kingdom Of The European Union Essay

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The decision by the United Kingdom to leave the European Union this last June will surely be a pivotal moment in political history. It was both a rejection of the EU and in some ways the broader global community. The result of this referendum seems to be striking for two particular reasons. First, few observers of politics – casual and professionals alike – did not seriously anticipate the success of the leave campaign. While only anecdotal, my colleagues and I were in the United Kingdom about a week in advance of the vote, and the consensus seemed to be that there would be a remain victory – albeit small. Late into the early morning hours of June 24th we realized that the conventional wisdom was no longer conventional. Secondly, it was unexpected because of the insidiousness of exclusionary and sometimes outright racist rhetoric that the Leave campaign espoused. That is not to say that all those who supported the leave campaign are racists – but there is an undeniable motivation of xenophobia also behind some actors regarding the desire to turn inwards.
Thus, I was motivated to study what exactly went wrong in this case. My mention of the consensus around a narrow remain victory notwithstanding, there were evident signs during our time there of a lack of a credible opposition. Particularly Labour, who mounted what can only be described as lukewarm attempt to advocate for the EU. But this, I hypothesize, has more to do with the voters than the party themselves. Labour did

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