Description
This paper starts off with the apparent contradiction between a hard British exit from the European Union (EU), Brexit, which altered fundamental aspects of the domestic and international political arrangements in the country and the perception of many Brexit voters that Brexit was a missed opportunity. These suggest that while the vote for Brexit indicated a desire for a change in the status quo as it was before 2016, the ensuing amendments to the British political system have not lived up to the expectation of many supporters of Brexit. The paper engages with this issue, arguing that despite leaving the EU, there hasn’t been a fundamental shift in the key features and practices in British politics. More specifically, it substantiates this view by providing a detailed analysis of the key features and practices of British politics since the 1980s and by comparing them to those characteristic of the post-2016 Conservative governments. In this way, the paper contributes to debates about Brexit by suggesting specific ideas as to what types of changes may be able to address the grievances expressed by the vote for Brexit.
