Abstract
As with all good things, my time as editor of Political Insight is coming to an end. The magazine will cease publication at the end of this year.
As I wrote recently in PSA News, I’ll never forget the night the BNP’s Nick Griffin appeared on the BBC’s Question Time in October 2009. Not because it was a watershed moment in British politics – although a farright leader on a mainstream TV debate almost certainly was – but because it always reminds me of how I came to edit this magazine.
Earlier that day I had interviewed for the role of Political Insight’s first editor. Barely a year earlier I had finished a PhD – in human geography – and made the quixotic decision to become a journalist, taking my chance as an arts reporter in Belfast. Then I saw the PSA advert. About an hour before I sat down to watch Question Time, I got a phone call from Professor Paul Whiteley, Chairman of the PSA’s Publications Sub-committee. To my surprise – and delight – I was being offered the job.
Editing Political Insight has been a joy. There are few more satisfying things than taking a piece from a rough idea, through the editing process, to a finished article in print. I am particularly proud of the numerous early career academics whose work has featured in these pages.
I have also seldom been stuck for issues to cover. It felt at times as if Political Insight’s creation was a harbinger of a much wider change in politics. Our first issue led with Paul Whiteley perspicaciously arguing that the 2010 election would produce a hung Parliament – I was so convinced that I went down to the bookmaker’s to place a bet at five-to-one.
The years that followed only grew more tumultuous. We covered the 2014 Scottish independence referendum in real depth. We tracked the rise of Ukip, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer. Then, of course, there was Brexit – the subject that dominates this issue.
A decade on, we reflect on what Brexit has meant – and not meant – across a range of issues. Anand Menon considers how the referendum result reflected a rising populist demand that is still, ten years later, driving our politics. As Labour looks to move back into Brussels’ orbit, Simon Usherwood considers the future of Britain’s relationship with Europe, while Cleo Davies examines how Brexit has changed the European Union itself.
From Northern Ireland, the site of so much Brexit-related consternation, Katy Hayward asks what lessons the rest of the United Kingdom might learn from Belfast’s experiences. Across the Sea of Moyle, Nicola McEwen looks at how Brexit has upset the Scottish and Welsh devolution settlements. In the Last Word slot, Maria Sobolewska, co-author of the seminal book Brexitland, explores how Brexit fundamentally weakened both Labour and Conservatives, and ushered in a new era of political fragmentation.
As if to demonstrate that our current politics cannot be neatly separated from the referendum a decade ago, John Curtice provides a deep dive into the recent local and devolved elections, and finds that Leave and Remain are still dividing lines on the electoral map. Elsewhere, Tomáš Cirhan and Sergiu Gherghina report on recent elections in Hungary and Czechia, where populists met very different fates. Benjamin D. Hennig plots the fragile foundations of globalisation and Christian Z. Nsonwu makes the case for paying more attention to non-aligned voters ahead of November’s US midterm elections.
All that remains is for me to say a huge thanks to you, the political studies community. I was ably helped by the teams first at Wiley and then Sage, and an extra special thanks to Mel Armstrong and Doug MacKay, our production team, who have made every issue special, and to everyone at the PSA.
It is with a heavy heart that I will lay down my editor’s cap at the end of this year. Political Insight’s dedication to combining rigour and expertise with accessibility is needed more now than ever. I know this is an ambition shared by the PSA. I look forward to seeing where all your work goes next – and, for now, a huge thanks to everyone who made Political Insight such a rare and special place.