Book launch: England Alone

Joint event by the Federal Trust and Global Policy Institute

Wednesday, 15th November 2017
17.30 – 19.30, followed by a reception
84 Moorgate
London Metropolitan University
London EC2M 6SQ

 

Launch and panel discussion of the late Stephen Haseler’s last book England Alone: Brexit and the Crisis of English Identity, which he completed shortly before his death in July.

 

The themes of England Alone as set out by Stephen Haseler are:

  • The Brexit referendum result represents the end product of a crisis of English identity and confidence that has been building for over a century as the UK lost its role as a world empire.
  • The Brexiteers live in a fantasy-land about our negotiating position and power in relation to the EU, and about the viability of a new ‘global role’. They have consistently overestimated the importance of the UK in the new global order.
  • Brexit – the final result of a century of this delusion of grandeur – will, as we leave the world’s largest Single Market, leave us much poorer. And, as separatism grows in Scotland and Northern Ireland, it will also de-stabilise the Westminster state itself, including the monarchy, as the UK breaks up.
  • So devastating was the EU referendum result that the existing Parliament, where there is an anti-Brexit majority, should, as an act of real as opposed to phoney patriotism, re-align the parties and reverse Brexit in order to stay in the EU.

Behind these four themes are four critical issues that were examined by the panel: Sovereignty, Citizenship, English Identity and English Futures.

PROGRAMME

Welcome & Introduction:
Professor Chris Dixon,  Acting Director, Global Policy Institute

Panel:

Chair: Brendan Donnelly, Director, The Federal Trust

Professor Vernon Bogdanor, King’s College London

Dr. Andrew Blick, King’s College London

John Stevens, former MEP

Professor Sam Whimster, Global Policy Institute

Open discussion

Closing remarks: Professor Chris Dixon