State of Paralysis: A Cultural History of Brexit (1)

By: John Elsom

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Synopsis: We have not been driven into Brexit at the point of a gun or out of economic necessity, but purely for cultural reasons. State of Paralysis explores the climate of opinion in Britain that has led to more than seventy years of indecision about our relationship with our continental neighbours and our role on the world's stage. The post-war years saw many dramatic changes: the arrival of weapons of mass destruction, the nuclear industries, space travel, civil rights, global warming, the Internet, the digitalisation of behaviour and the loss of Empire. The aim of the European Union was to keep the peace on the continent and to face these global problems. But has it done so? Have we in Britain been able to adjust to the demands of the new worldor are we clinging on to a past that can never be recovered? John Elsom describes the political impasse in parliament and the country over the terms of Brexit to analyse what these motives were, how they were obtained and where their consequences may lead. He approaches these issues from the view of a political and cultural commentator, who has seen at first hand many of the changes that have affected all our lives.