ABSTRACT
The potency of Magna Carta as 'an idea of liberty' has not of course been bound to England or, since the Act of Union, the United Kingdom. Magna Carta is a notion capable of transmogrifying in meaning and crystallizing diverse standpoints at any given historical juncture, whether filtered through political rhetoric, pseudo-events, television documentaries and political imagery. In its most recent political materialization it leveraged debates in the 2016 referendum on the UK's continued membership of the European Union, particularly in the schemata of sovereignty and national identity. The presence of the Parliament building not only connotes the rhetoric of Big Society but does so whilst simultaneously emphasizing the political genealogy of 'Britishness' and 'nation' – the other key principles associated with the One-nation Conservative agenda overtly cited by the Conservative Party in its contemporary presentation.
