Brexit in the Financial Times: How does the Financial Times depict Brexit and the national identity crisis

Details

Supervisors

Arblaster, Paul

Faculty

Faculté de philosophie, arts et lettres

Degree label

Master [120] en communication multilingue, à finalité spécialisée: langues des affaires

Abstract

This research paper provides an analysis of articles from the Financial Times newspaper related to Brexit. This study aimed to investigate how the Financial Times portrays Brexit and the national identity crisis in articles written between 2016 and 2019. All the articles can be found in the annexes. The study showed that the depiction of Brexit and predictions of post-Brexit are not positive. It also confirmed that a national identity crisis was observed and discussed by some journalists. The major conclusion to this study was that the Financial Times journalists, standing on the Remain side, see Brexit as a dangerous project for Britain led by incompetent political leaders. The journalists also insist on the political chaos and the economic damage from Brexit. The research also reveals that there is an idealized pre-Europe utopia in some people’s minds which made them regret the past. In addition, from the authors’ point of view, people seem to have lost the British values such as civility and tolerance and adopted intolerance and intimidation. This resulted for example, in resentment toward immigration and immigrants. As one of the journalists summarized it, Brexit “has been to see the threads of Britishness, woven over centuries, unravel” (Philip Stephens, Goodbye EU, and goodbye the United Kingdom, Financial Times, 3 April 2019).