Colonialism does connect Britain, the EU and Bosnia – but Britain is not being treated like a colony

The Conservative MEP, Daniel Hannan, responding to the withdrawal agreement reached between the UK government and the EU over Brexit, indicated that the deal could leave the UK facing colonial rule of the sort imposed on Bosnia following the Yugoslav war. Catherine Baker argues that there is indeed a connection between Brexit Britain and post-Dayton Bosnia, but it is not the one identified by Hannan: rather, it lies in the sense of imperial nostalgia and the myth of British exceptionalism which has fuelled the imagination of the Leave campaign.