Euroscepticism and the Anglosphere: Traditions and Dilemmas in Contemporary English Nationalism

B ritish participation in the historical process of E uropean integration has been persistently framed as a policy dilemma of the highest order. This dilemma was itself coloured by the existence of policy traditions that oriented B ritain away from E urope and towards political communities tied to a historical interpretation of B ritish nationality. Euroscepticism is symptomatic of these traditions and dilemmas while at the same time sustaining them. But E urosceptics face a dilemma of their own. What serious alternative do they propose? The notion of the ‘Anglosphere’ was adopted on the E urosceptic right of B ritish politics as an alternative to E uropean integration. As a politics of disengagement by the C ameron government played out in E urope, a policy of re‐engagement began with B ritain's former Dominions. Here was a response to a political dilemma that not only used historical consciousness and political tradition as its point of departure, but as its place of destination too.