There are many ways to be Great (Britain)

What is it about?

Britain is often presented as a 'great' country. But what exactly is so great about it depends on the perspective of whoever is making the claim. In this article, we analyse campaign materials from the 1975 referendum on Britain's membership of the European Community and the 2016 referendum on EU membership to see how different political actors conceptualised British 'greatness'.

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Photo by Serena Repice Lentini on Unsplash

Photo by Serena Repice Lentini on Unsplash

Why is it important?

British identity has been much debated since the 2016 vote to leave the EU. Often, an obsession with 'greatness' is attributed primarily to the political right and those who supported Brexit. But our research shows that almost all political actors in the campaigns made reference to British greatness, one way or another, and used it to justify very different political positions (leaving or staying in the EU, for example). This indicates that despite its relative decline as an objective 'great power' in world politics, greatness remains almost a background condition of British identity - the question is not 'are we great?' but 'how are we great?'. Whether this will remain the case in the years to come, as the country adjusts to life outside the EU and after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, will be interesting to see.