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Euroscepticism and the A nglosphere: Traditions and Dilemmas in Contemporary English Nationalism
Author(s) -
Wellings Ben,
Baxendale Helen
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
jcms: journal of common market studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.54
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1468-5965
pISSN - 0021-9886
DOI - 10.1111/jcms.12207
Subject(s) - dilemma , politics , nationalism , disengagement theory , interpretation (philosophy) , face (sociological concept) , order (exchange) , political science , sociology , political economy , nationality , government (linguistics) , consciousness , law , social science , philosophy , epistemology , immigration , economics , gerontology , medicine , linguistics , finance
B ritish participation in the historical process of E uropean integration has been persistently framed as a policy dilemma of the highest order. This dilemma was itself coloured by the existence of policy traditions that oriented B ritain away from E urope and towards political communities tied to a historical interpretation of B ritish nationality. Euroscepticism is symptomatic of these traditions and dilemmas while at the same time sustaining them. But E urosceptics face a dilemma of their own. What serious alternative do they propose? The notion of the ‘Anglosphere’ was adopted on the E urosceptic right of B ritish politics as an alternative to E uropean integration. As a politics of disengagement by the C ameron government played out in E urope, a policy of re‐engagement began with B ritain's former Dominions. Here was a response to a political dilemma that not only used historical consciousness and political tradition as its point of departure, but as its place of destination too.