Brexit: simply an omnishambles or a major policy fiasco? INTRODUCTION

The collective concerns of this Special Issue are twofold. First, it advances possible explanations of how the Brexit issue arose. Why was Britain's membership of the EU thought to be so problematic for so many members of the British political elite and ultimately for a majority of voters? In a nutshell, how did we get to June 2016 and the Brexit Referendum? Secondly, the Special Issue examines how the issue was managed (or mismanaged) following the referendum result up until the Withdrawal Agreement in March 2019. Drawing on the varied contributions in the Special Issue, this introduction contains our own overview of the Brexit saga, distinguishing idiosyncratic processes from the more general trends that to led to Brexit and its aftermath.