Description
During the referendum on whether to leave or remain within the European Union (EU), British voters were promised by the Leave campaign that voting for Brexit would lead the United Kingdom (UK) to sunlit uplands, including the control of borders, economic prosperity, and legal sovereignty. However, while fantasies of a more successful Britain were emphasised, any potential negative consequences of voting “Leave” were dismissed or downplayed by the campaign. Now that Brexit is done, voters are having to confront the reality of “taking back control” and what it means not to be a member of the EU anymore. Drawing on novel focus group data, we interrogate how the gulf between the rhetoric of Brexit and reality has disrupted voters’ sense of ontological security and engendered what we term, subjectivities of remorse. We show that a mismatch between expectations and reality generates anxiety that can lead to a sense of fatalism regarding a decision made and influence how optimistic or pessimistic individuals are about the future.
