Analysis of Alexander Betts' Ted Talk and short stories

Analysis of the Ted Talk “Why Brexit happened - and what to do next”

Alexander Betts has given a Ted talk about Brexit and what to do next. He definitely argues for why the UK should stay in the EU, and he gives his audience a lot of sensible arguments. The nodal point of the text is Brexit, and the chain of equivalence is made up of words such as immigration, democracy he furthermore puts a lot of energy into telling about globalization too. “I am British” (00:13) is the opening line of the Ted talk he comes with a statement that he is in the same situation as every other British human, one’s country about to leave the EU.

Alexander Betts use ethos and this make his statements very reliable and he makes sure to make the talk very personal by having a sense of humor. “I come from an island where many of us like to believe there's been a lot of continuity over the last thousand years. We tend to have historically imposed change on others but done much less of it ourselves” (00:26) Alexander Betts compare the UK with a little island, the UK itself has accomplished many things, but they have not come a long way as a country if we look critically at it. Brexit was the outcome of that. Alexander uses a floating signifier to support this “immense shock” were he recognize that he himself hadn't seen Brexit coming.