Saturday 25 March, 2017: 100,000 Remainers march to Parliament Square on the sixtieth anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. Thomas Dedes. All rights reserved.The Brexit referendum felt like a moment of rupture for all those opposed to it. It seemed so unlikely at the time, and yet it happened, and now here we are on our way out. Since then, the “Remainer” bloc (if ever there was one) seems to have splintered in two, with those who are unquestionably opposed to Brexit on one side, and on the other side those who consider that the outcome was definitive, and are now open to making the best of a bad situation.
Since the referendum, people on both sides of the Remain vote have been very vocal about explaining their positions, and as a result, we seem to be faced with two completely distinct representations about what’s been happening in the UK, both articulating different sets of concerns around Brexit.
Last year, I was in London conducting research among Remainers for my Master’s thesis. I had a chance to explore these different positions in depth by interviewing many people on both sides of the Remain divide. While their positions often seemed irreconcilable to me, what struck me was that the Brexit referendum somehow unleashed a complete reimagination of politics, both among those who remain completely opposed to Brexit, and those who believe that – for better or worse – the referendum result should be respected.
