Rule Britannia: Brexit and the end of Empire Professor Danny Dorling, University of Oxford

Event details

YUSU Working Class Network event

Things fall apart when empires crumble. This time, we think, things will be different. They are not. This time, we are told, we will become great again. We will not.

In Rule Britannia, Danny Dorling and Sally Tomlinson argue that the vote to leave the EU was the last gasp of the old empire working its way out of the British psyche. Fuelled by a misplaced nostalgia, the result was driven by a lack of knowledge of Britain’s imperial history, by a profound anxiety about Britain’s status today, and by a deeply unrealistic vision of our future.

Whatever happens next, Britain will be – and has already been – inevitably diminished by the Brexit vote. There is no welcoming group of countries ready to swiftly embrace new trading relationships with us.

And yet, there is hope. In this wide-ranging and thoughtful analysis, Dorling and Tomlinson argue that if Britain can reconcile itself to a new beginning, there is the chance to carve out a new identity. Rule Britannia is a call to leave behind the jingoistic ignorance of the past and build a fairer Britain, eradicating the inequality that blights our society and embracing our true strengths.

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Professor Danny Dorling

Danny Dorling is without a doubt the UK's most prominent social geographer, and with that, he is also an expert on inequality, writing countless books on both topics.

Danny is the Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, which is only his latest role in an illustrious career including stints at the University of Leeds, Newcastle University, the University of Sheffield, the University of Bristol. He is also a visiting Professor in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London, a visiting professor at the School of Social and Community Medicine at the University of Bristol and a visiting fellow at the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). This career extends beyond academia as well, as Danny has been a patron of the road safety charity RoadPeace since 2011.