Announcing that she would step down as Britain’s prime minister on June 7, Theresa May mournfully said, “I have striven to make the United Kingdom a country that works not just for a privileged few, but for everyone. And to honour the result of the EU referendum.”
May was right on the diagnosis. The Brexit vote called for two apparently distinct tasks: making Britain work for all and exiting from the EU. Each task demanded a decisive break from overpowering narratives that place blinkers on policymakers in Britain – and, indeed, in all western democracies.
But May remained a prisoner of those worn and dysfunctional narratives, and helplessly repeated the same mantras for three years.
