ABSTRACT
Content analysis carried out during (Centre for Research in Communication and Culture 2016) and after (Moore and Ramsay 2017: 27) the Brexit referendum has revealed that discussion about Britain’s world role, including the foreign and defence implications, played out on the margins of the campaign. Economic considerations drove the arguments on each side. The Remain campaign’s ‘project fear’ (Daddow 2016) came up against the Leave campaign’s desire to ‘take back control’. Both, however, put financial matters at the heart of their discourse. ‘Britain Stronger in Europe’ accented the benefits membership of the Single Market gave Britain in terms of trade, jobs and prices, plus workers’ rights (Britain Stronger in Europe 2016). VoteLeave, famously, publicised on the side of its battle bus that Britain could spend £350 million per week more on the National Health Service if it left the EU. This was nested within arguments about border control, immigration, sovereignty and global trade prospects beyond Europe, particularly with the Commonwealth (Vote Leave 2016). 1
