Truths, lies and figurative scenarios – Metaphors at the heart of Brexit (original) (raw)

In the wake of the British referendum to (Br)exit the European Union (EU), allegations of lying and misrepresentation have been levelled against the pro-Brexit campaigners. Whilst such criticism is supported by evidence concerning 'facts and figures' used in the campaign, it neglects to take into account the conceptual framing that made such 'facts' seem plausible for the public, specifically framing through metaphoric scenarios. This article studies one of the key-metaphors that has dominated British EU-debates for the past 25 years, i.e. the slogan, Britain at the heart of Europe. The discourse career of this metaphor shows a decline in its affirmative, optimistic use, and a converse increase of deriding uses to the point of declaring the heart of Europe irredeemably diseased, dead, non-existent or rotten. We argue that these changes in the metaphor scenario of the heart of Europe as a body organ helped to entice the British public to integrate information supplied by pro-Brexit campaigners into a narrative of a dying EU, which motivated their voting preferences. Statements that had been exposed as factually incorrect could thus still be accepted as fitting the narrative and were considered as more reliable than unframed pieces of counter-information supplied by the Brexit critics.