‘We are all children of the commonwealth’: political myth, metaphor and the transnational commonwealth ‘family of nations’ in Brexit discourse

Abstract

Political myths contribute to effective political communication in their ability to render a social group’s world and experiences more coherent by providing stories or narratives that explain where it came from, how it came to be in its present condition, and what its future holds. One such contemporary political myth, identified as Global Britain, has been vigorously promoted by English conservative politicians and public intellectuals—both before and after the 2016 European Union membership referendum—in an effort to alter perceptions about what the UK’s proper orientation and identity should be in the international system. Global Britain’s advocates view Brexit as an opportunity to reclaim Britain’s internationalist credentials by renewing old relationships with peoples and societies in its former empire. Amongst many rhetorical tools used in the articulation of Global Britain is a Commonwealth as a ‘family of nations’ conceptual metaphor which contributes content to the political myth and force behind its main purpose—promoting the imagination of a positive future when the British people and their country will range out in the world amongst their closest ‘kith and kin’ rather than being tied down in what Global Britain’s advocates view as an inefficient, undemocratic and sclerotic European Union.