Abstract

This is a critical time for the relationship between Britain and Europe, as politicians debate the crisis facing the European Union and Britain’s role within it. This second edition consists largely of new material that charts how recent political developments have changed the debate surrounding Britain’s membership of the EU. Following the 2015 general election and with the promise of an imminent referendum on Brexit, the book now considers:
-How has the renegotiation agenda shifted?
-How are EU partners responding to threats of departure from Britain?
-What was the impact of the 2015 general election?
-What are the politics of a referendum on membership in 2017?
- How can a pro-European case be made?

By seeking answers to these questions, Roger Liddle assesses the impact of a series of miscalculated gambles by David Cameron and his forebears that leaves Britain teetering on the edge of an exit from the European Union.
Roger Liddle is co-chair of Policy Network and became a life peer in 2010. He was formerly Tony Blair’s special adviser on European policy and subsequently worked for three years in the European commission, first in the trade commissioner’s cabinet and then advising the president of the commission. He has been at the heart of the Europe debate for two decades, with detailed knowledge of both the politics and public policy. Roger has written extensively on European and British affairs, including The Blair Revolution (with Peter Mandelson, 1996), Global Europe, Social Europe (with Anthony Giddens and Patrick Diamond, 2006), Beyond New Labour (with Patrick Diamond, 2009), The Europe Dilemma: the Drama of EU Integration (2014), and The Social Reality of Europe Ater the Crisis (with Patrick Diamond and Daniel Sage, 2015), and he is author of several other Fabian Society and Policy Network pamphlets.

He also coauthored two papers for the president of the European commission’s thinktank, the Bureau of European Policy Advisers, on Europe’s Social Reality (February 2007) and the Single Market: Yesterday and Tomorrow (July 2006), and since then has contributed to various edited collections on the single market, the social challenges facing Europe, the case for a social investment strategy and Britain’s European policy.