The contribution of British conservative think tanks to the Brexit debate in long-term perspective
The involvement of British conservative think tanks in the Brexit referendum campaign, as well as in the heated debates that immediately followed the vote and continued until the United Kingdom’s official withdrawal from the European Union and beyond, has been previously underlined in the literature...
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| I publikationen: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb, |
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| Huvudupphovsman: | |
| Materialtyp: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Språk: | Anglais |
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Observatoire de la société britannique
2026
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| Ämnen: | |
| Länkar: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Sammanfattning: | The involvement of British conservative think tanks in the Brexit referendum campaign, as well as in the heated debates that immediately followed the vote and continued until the United Kingdom’s official withdrawal from the European Union and beyond, has been previously underlined in the literature. It has been established in particular that several of these organisations took part in producing and disseminating a pro-Brexit discourse, which relied on the neoliberal promise of the advent of a “Global Britain”, freed from the constraints of the European Union and restored to its former glory through its reconnection with the countries of the “Anglosphere”. This article aims to place the contributions made by various conservative think tanks to the Brexit debate in a long-term perspective. It starts by observing how Thatcherite think tanks once defended the idea of British EEC membership, on the grounds that the Treaty of Rome had been originally intended as a charter for economic freedom. This retrospective look at the early attitude of conservative think tanks towards European integration provides a framework to better understand why most of their contributions on Brexit represented a form of ideological continuity, as they revolved around the presentation of Brexit as a unique opportunity to bolster economic liberalism and the free market. The study of their interventions, however, tends to demonstrate that they were driven less by genuine anticipation or strategic foresight than by reaction and opportunism in the face of unfolding political events. This paper finally analyses how these think tanks have dealt with the question of Brexit since the United Kingdom’s official withdrawal from the European Union. It observes how they seem to have partly reneged their initial shining promises through subtle reorientations of their discourse, which might indirectly shed light on deeper contradictions that lay at the heart of contemporary British conservatism. |
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