Kevin O’Rourke - A Short History of Brexit

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First published in France as Une brve histoire du Brexit 2018
First published with additional material in Great Britain as A Short History of Brexit 2019

Copyright ODILE JACOB, 2018

The present edition is published with additional material in agreement with the French publisher, Odile Jacob

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Book design by Matthew Young

ISBN: 978-0-241-39833-3

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the authors and publishers rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

To the fellows and staff of All Souls College

This book was originally written for a French audience, unfamiliar with the details of recent British political history but interested nonetheless in making sense of what was happening on the other side of the English Channel. I have therefore included more material on recent British events than some readers in the UK may find strictly necessary. As I worked on the manuscript, however, it became clear to me that to tell the story properly, and to explain why the negotiations between the UK and EU have proved so difficult, a recital of British history alone was not enough. The book is therefore just as much about Ireland and the European Union as it is about the turbulent relationship between the UK and Europe: its about why the EU developed in the way that it did, and is reacting to Brexit in the way that it is. Its about the ways in which the intertwined histories of Britain, Ireland and the rest of Europe are shaping the Brexit negotiations of today, and about the impossibility of predicting what will happen tomorrow.

My hope is thus that British readers, many of whom are already familiar with the work of Hugo Young, Tim Shipman and others, will find a fresh perspective in these pages, and that the book will help other English-speaking readers to understand where Brexit came from, and why the process of extricating the UK from the European Union has proved so fraught.

I am extremely grateful to Stuart Proffitt for helping me to improve the English-language manuscript in numerous ways. The usual disclaimer applies more than it usually does. I also thank Rebecca Lee, Claire Pligry, Ruth Pietroni, Corina Romonti, Ben Sinyor and everyone at Penguin who helped get this book published so quickly.

Dublin

19 December 2018

I have incurred many debts while writing this book. I am especially grateful to Odile Jacob, who has been tremendously supportive, and to my editor Galle Jullien, whose idea it was in the first place and who provided me with many insightful comments on the manuscript. Galle and I met because of my participation in the 2017 Journes de lconomie in Lyon, France, and I thank those responsible for organizing the event, in particular Pascal Le Merrer and ric Monnet, as well as ric Albert who moderated a stimulating panel discussion on Brexit in which I participated. I have also greatly enjoyed working with Christophe Jaquet, who was an excellent, responsive and flexible translator.

In addition to Galle, I particularly want to thank those who read the manuscript in whole or in part, and provided me with encouragement and invaluable feedback: Graham Brownlow, Rosemary Byrne, Ian Crawford, Zo Fachan, Henrik Iversen, Declan Kelleher, Dennis Novy, Andrew ORourke and Alan Taylor. I am also very grateful to Alex Barker, Steve Broadberry, Fred Calvaire, Gilles Clotre, Tony Connelly, Chris Cook, Nicholas Crafts, ric Delpine, Peter Foster, Chris Giles, David Allen Green, Mark Harrison, Katy Hayward, Morgan Kelly, Philip Lane, Sam Lowe, Philippe Martin, Jacques Mollard, Ollie Molloy, Simon Nixon, Cormac Grda, Rgine Rigaud, Jan Sdersten, Jean-Jacques Tardy, Alan Taylor, Karl Whelan and Fred Wilmot-Smith, all of whom answered questions, provided references, discussed Brexit with me, or helped me in various other ways to write this book. I couldnt have written the book without Rosemarys help and as ever I owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude. She and our four children, Ciara, Joseph, Gabriel and Sophie, have had lively discussions with me about many of the issues discussed in this book, and provided me with constant encouragement and emotional and practical support. All five have my love and thanks. I have learned an enormous amount from almost daily exchanges with Alan and Dennis ever since June 2016, and not only about Brexit, while in addition to reading the manuscript closely Zo very helpfully summarized the history of the border in the Valle des Entremonts for me.