Episode 15 - All things Brexit with Rob Ford

Under normal circumstances this is a Dutch-language podcast but these are not normal circumstances. Brexit is upon us. Within four weeks the United Kingdom is set to leave the European Union, so today I’m joined by my old pal Rob Ford (Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester) to talk about the past, present and future of Brexit.

Topics include: why Cameron called for that referendum (5:00), the hard-Brexit wing of the Conservative Party (11:05), explanations for the referendum result at the country-level (20:48), individual-level (25:32), and constituency-level (30:43), what role migration played in the referendum (34:43), Rob’s work as member of Team Curtice (the BBC exit poll) and his take on the ‘UK Polling Disaster of 2015’ (40:17), his spat with Nate Silver (50:40), Remain and Leave as group identities (55:55), the rise and fall of UKIP (1:02:33), the prospects of a withdrawal agreement (1:11:39), recent moves by May and Corbyn to perhaps postpone Brexit and call for a people’s vote on any deal (1:23:28), what happens in the case of a no-deal Brexit (1:31:02) and, finally, what all this means for the legitimacy of the UK political system (1:36:13).

Music: Dexter Britain (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0), www.dexterbritain.com