Brexit - The Great Divide: Britain in Turmoil 2015-20

Where: Zoom Platform - h. 14.15

Description

The lecture will look at the background to arguably the most contentious issue in British political and social life for a generation and seek to explain why in the referendum, held on 23 June 2016, 51.9% of the British electorate opted to leave the European Community after being a member of it since 1973.
Surprising though the result was to many commentators, analysts and voters, research on what happened back in 2015-16 really confirms that the alliance of Euroscepticism and populism was a much stronger force than many of us had imagined in advance of the referendum.
Overall, therefore, the lecture is designed to demonstrate why the appeal of the ‘Leave’ camp trumped its opponents’ arguments and why those in ‘Remain’ didn’t get their act together. Given what we know now, however, should any of us have been really so surprised by what took place back in the mid-summer of 2016?

Speaker

Malcolm Murfett is a visiting professor of contemporary history in the Department of War Studies at King’s College London.
While undertaking his doctoral studies in Modern History at New College, Oxford University, he was selected to be the research assistant to the Earl of Birkenhead on the officially commissioned life of Sir Winston Churchill. It proved to be a priceless opportunity since these papers were restricted to only two historians in the world at this time.
Malcolm has subsequently taught at universities across four continents winning teaching awards at each of the institutions he has represented. He has written fifteen books on a range of military, strategic and political themes and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 1991 and became an Associate Editor of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in 1997. His Naval Warfare 1919-1945 is widely recognised as a pathbreaking book since it brings the element of simultaneity of action and decision making to bear in each theatre across the globe and with every combatant involved in the process.
Known for his experience in Asia, Malcolm was invited in 2017 to become the series editor for Routledge’s new set of publications under the banner ‘Cold War in Asia’.
A management consultant for over thirty years advising a number of multinational companies in both Asia and Europe, he has extensive broadcasting experience with both terrestrial and cable TV and was often an advisor on European affairs for ChannelNewsAsia and for the History Channel.

Pre-registration

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