New Books in British Studies

Peter Foster, "What Went Wrong with Brexit? And What We Can Do about It" (Canongate, 2023)


Listen Later

It’s been over three years since the UK withdrew from the EU and no one – not even the most ardent Brexiter – thinks it has gone well so far. Defending the cause after yet another summertime setback, the best Matthew Lesh from the Institute of Economic Affairs could offer was: “Brexit simply means that British representatives can make … choices, not that they must point in any particular direction”.

Ever since the British voted to leave the EU in 2016, millions of words have been written for and against the process but Peter Foster’s What Went Wrong With Brexit: And What We Can Do About (Canongate Books, 2023) is the first book to assess the deep economic scars left by Brexit and provide politically realistic palliatives. He writes: "There is little mileage in relitigating the history of Brexit - as the saying goes, 'we are where we are' - but that does not mean accepting that the UK has to remain in its current state of Brexit purgatory".

Since 2020, Peter Foster has been the Financial Times's public policy editor and writer of its Britain After Brexit newsletter. Before that, he was a longtime reporter for The Telegraph - working in New Delhi, Beijing, Washington and as Europe Editor between 2015 and 2020. During this critical five-year period, he became – along with RTÉ’s Tony Connelly – the indispensable Brexit reporter, breaking stories, explaining this intricate and unprecedented divorce, and building huge Twitter followings.

*The author's own book recommendations are The Light that Failed: A Reckoning by Ivan Krastev and Stephen Holmes (Allen Lane, 2019) and The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Picador, 2006).

Tim Gwynn Jones is an economic and political-risk analyst at Medley Advisors, who also writes the twenty4two newsletter on Substack and hosts the In The Room podcast series.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/british-studies

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

New Books in British StudiesBy Marshall Poe

  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4
  • 4

4

3 ratings


More shows like New Books in British Studies

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,389 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,193 Listeners

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps by Peter Adamson

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

1,590 Listeners

Jacobin Radio by Jacobin

Jacobin Radio

1,424 Listeners

Best of the Spectator by The Spectator

Best of the Spectator

184 Listeners

The Dig by Daniel Denvir

The Dig

1,545 Listeners

CrowdScience by BBC World Service

CrowdScience

480 Listeners

This Day by Jody Avirgan & Radiotopia

This Day

989 Listeners

The Ancients by History Hit

The Ancients

3,043 Listeners

The Rest Is History by Goalhanger

The Rest Is History

13,053 Listeners

Gone Medieval by History Hit

Gone Medieval

1,762 Listeners

Not Just the Tudors by History Hit

Not Just the Tudors

1,982 Listeners

The Rest Is Politics by Goalhanger

The Rest Is Politics

3,287 Listeners

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society by History Hit

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

1,219 Listeners

Past Present Future by David Runciman

Past Present Future

321 Listeners