Tony Benn addresses an anti-Trident demo in 2006. Flickr/Pete Birkinshaw. Some rights reserved.Momentum having been building behind anti-EU sentiment in recent years, the contest over Britain’s future in Europe is expected to be fought on a knife edge. Political celebrities emerge from the woodwork to pledge their allegiances. Boris Johnson, current Mayor of London, has already staked his claim to a ‘no’ vote with a fanfare, along with a number of senior members in the cabinet.
David Cameron’s EU deal has pandered to a particular nationalistic segment of the vote; seeking safeguards for UK interests on issues of immigration, benefits for migrants in the UK, future Eurozone bailouts and parliamentary sovereignty. It has also reinforced the UK’s image as the ‘the awkward member’: a reputation it’s earned for decades of anti-European rhetoric and the seeking of opt-outs (a joint-top 4 in total). In recent years, criticism of the central institutions in Brussels has found new momentum for Euroscepticism in the UK, signalled by the emergence of UKIP and the re-emergence of division within the British Conservative Party.
But this is not a solely UK phenomenon. In 2014 European Parliamentary (EP) elections, Europe’s elite were shocked by the nationalist ‘earthquake’, which took as many as 25% of the allocated seats in Britain and France, and had sizeable gains elsewhere. These days, anti-EU rhetoric is frequently aired by nationalists in the EP - some of whom are led by the UK’s own Nigel Farage. The influence this bloc has established, both in the central European institutions and domestically, has enabled them to shape the debate on European membership. Put otherwise, much of the debate on the future of Europe is displaying a noticeably nationalist agenda. Current debates on Britain’s future in the EU are no exception.
