'Admirably brief and necessarily brutal... Highly recommended.' — NICK COHEN, THE SPECTATOR

'Compact and easily digestible. I’d encourage anyone who is confused, fascinated or frustrated by Brexit to read this book – you’ll be far wiser by the end of it.' — CAROLINE LUCAS MP

'I would strongly recommend Ian Dunt’s excellent guide. Dunt has taken the extraordinary step of asking a set of experts what they think. I learnt a lot.' — PHILIP COLLINS, PROSPECT

Britain’s departure from the European Union is riddled with myth and misinformation — yet the risks are very real. Brexit could diminish the UK’s power, throw its legal system into turmoil, and lower the standard of living of 65m citizens.

In this revised bestseller, Ian Dunt explains why leaving the world’s largest trading bloc will leave Britain poorer and key industries like finance and pharma struggling to operate.

He argues that Brexit is unlikely to cause a big economic implosion, but will instead act like a slow puncture in the UK's national prosperity and global influence.

Based on extensive interviews with trade and legal experts, Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now? is a searching exploration of Brexit shorn of the wishful thinking of its supporters in the British media and Parliament.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ian Dunt is a columnist for the I newspaper and appears as a pundit on BBC TV, Sky News and Al-Jazeera.

With Dorian Lynskey, he presents the Origin Story podcast and is a regular contributor to the Oh God, What Now? podcast.

His most recent book, How To Be A Liberal (Canbury, 2020), is an epic history of the spread of the ideas underpinning personal freedom.

EXTRACT
What is the European project?
Britain has always been deeply ignorant of the motivation behind the European project. The most common British response to European politicians is indifference, followed by frustration, followed by mockery. But without understanding Europe, you can’t effectively negotiate with Europe.

Ultimately, the European Union arose out of the ashes of the Second World War. In 1951, to prevent future disputes over resources, six nations agreed to trade freely in steel and coal. In 1957, the nations of the Coal and Steel Community (France, West Germany, Italy, Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg) signed the Treaty of Rome, founding the European Economic Community, which created a bigger common market and a customs union. Over time this common market attracted more nations and became the European Union.

For years Britain stood outside this club. In 1951, Prime Minister Clement Attlee declined an invitation to join the Coal and Steel Community, dismissing it as ‘six nations, four of whom we had to rescue from the other two.’ Britain also spurned the European Economic Community in 1958. While the European states looked to each other for peace and prosperity, the UK, with its still large empire and its special relationship with the United States, gazed overseas. Britain and the Continent were divided not just by geography, but by conflict. A great deal of the British psyche derives from the fact that we have not been invaded for centuries. We went through incredible suffering during the world wars, but it fell from the sky. It did not march down the streets in jackboots. On the mainland, that trauma was and is personal: the social memory of a neighbour’s betrayal, death camps, and tyranny. The EU is considered a barrier to conflict and carries an emotional weight we struggle to understand. Our MPs underestimate the resolve of Europe to preserve political unity.

Historically Britain has preferred to have a commercial relationship with the Continent. When Britain snubbed the coal and steel community, it started a looser trading club, the European Free Trade Association, with Austria, Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland. Slowly Britain realised the European common market was booming and applied to join, but its entry was vetoed twice by French president Charles de Gaulle, which was frankly a little off given that London had offered him a place to stay during the war. Britain eventually got in in 1973 and held a referendum on membership a couple of years later, which was easily passed:

Do you think the UK should stay in the European Community (Common Market)?

YES 17,378,581 (67.23%)

NO 8,470,073 (32.77%)

During this period it was mostly the Left which was wary of European integration. It saw it as a free market initiative, which it was. But gradually the Right grew increasingly outraged by the federalist ambitions of many European officials. It wasn’t paranoia either – EU leaders really were out to create a federal state of Europe. Then, in 1987, the single market was born. It was everything sceptics of the European project feared it would be.

Extracted from Brexit: What the Hell Happens Now? by Ian Dunt (Canbury Press)

CONTENTS

Introduction

What was that?

What did we vote for?

What is Article 50?

What is the European project?

What is the single market?

What are the politics of the European Union?

What about freedom of movement?

What about the economy?

Norway

Switzerland

Turkey

Canada

The World Trade Organisation

How can we keep the UK together?

Scotland

Ireland

What are we going to do?

What do the Brexit ministers want?

How talented are they?

What tools do they have?

What is the context?

The economy

The City of London

Immigration

The parliamentary battle

Making a new country

The time problem

What happens after Brexit?

Postscript

List of experts

Acknowledgements

References