Brexit from afar: What Americans care about in British politics

It’s hard enough to keep abreast of Brexit when you’re in the UK, but it becomes even more of a task to sift through the complex news cycle when you’re thousands of miles away. The intricacies of amendments, articles, endless votes and resignations can blur into one the further away you get – especially if you’re an American reader without a vested interest in what’s going on.

International interest in British politics comes in peaks and troughs. The US, of course, has its own equally dramatic government to keep up with. However, there are times when the American public puts aside their own news and looks across the pond. And that’s where I come in.

As someone who works in SEO, I can see in real-time when people’s intrigue is growing and what in. Here are a few peaks I noticed recently:

Theresa May’s resignation

Understandably, last week’s announcement that the prime minister would be stepping down gained worldwide attention. More interesting for me, however, was what people in the US were searching in relation to it.

Two of the most popular sentences people were searching for across the internet were ”When did Theresa May become prime minister?” (a fair question: it was July 2016), and “Did Theresa May support Brexit?” (OK, this one’s a little more complicated... let’s go with the short answer of “no”, but she could’ve done a better job showing it.)

European elections

Unsurprisingly people were keen to search for “results” and “exit polls”, but there was also been a spike in searches for the Brexit Party from the American public.

Specific events aside...

I most enjoy looking at what Americans are searching in relation to Brexit in general. Here are some of my favourite topics I’ve noticed over the last few months:

“Cat named Brexit?” (after a French EU minister joked that she had named her cat this because “he meows loudly to be let out but won’t go through the door”)

“What is Brexit all about?” (Who even knows at this point?)

“What is the Brexit plan?” (If we knew, we’d tell you!)

“Brexit petition”

“What is the Brexit backstop?”

“What is a no-deal Brexit?”

For me, this clearly shows a strong international engagement with what’s going on in Britain – but also that people outside the country remain unclear on what is happening, and what’s to come next.

Yours,

Lucy Anna Gray

Assistant audience editor (US)