Shortened name of UK's withdrawal from EU. Referendum took place in 23 June 2016, and passed with 52% "yes". Withdrawal is still a working process, UK will officially withdraw from EU in 29 March 2019.
Note: Resources I have used are cited below.
23 June 2016, was an interesting day from last year. Since 1973, times that EU didn’t even exist (there was European Economic Community), various political parties and people were wanting UK out of these communities. First referendum took place in 1975, but it was failed with 67% of people voting to UK staying in Economic Community. But in 2016, UK pointed out Treaty of EU’s Article 50 (right to leave the union), and had a referendum again. The result was different this time, with 52% of the people voting to leaving the union. UK will leave the union on 29 March 2019. First impact of the result of the passing refenrendum was resignation of David Cameron from prime minister chair. Economically, various currencies including English Sterlin, American Dollar, Australian Dollar experienced massive decreases in their values.
European Union is economical and political union that consists of 28 member states. Shaped with Treaty of Rome, Treaty of Maastricht, Treaty of Lisbon (last major update, on 2009). EU’s biggest aim is to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital. Or we can say that EU’s aim is to unite all European countries under a single flag. Actually this is not exactly too far away from happening, since (with a few exceptions) whole EU’s using one single monetary currency “€ (Euro)”, and people from an EU member state can freely visit other member states.
Of course, there are several reasons for English people to vote leave. First of all, in a perspective of economics, anti-EU groups were arguing that EU is dysfunctioning. And in a worldwide ideological sense, there is increase in nationalism. A distrust is growing for multinational financial, trade, defense organizations. They were taking the control away from indiviudal nations. Brexit could be a reasonable solution for this.
But, considering everything, was it a good decision to leave the EU? By an economic standpoint, it may not be. With Brexit, every home in the UK will lose about £2,200. UK’s own Central Bureau of Investigation, has warned that Brexit will cost the EU £100 billion to GDP by 2020 and lead to the loss of 950,000 jobs. Also, Brexit will likely weaken the pound, leaving the UK’s economy in a worse state. But, it’s fixable. UK will no longer pay a sum to the EU, and immediately after will try to negotiate trades with EU members.
For an another standpoint, we should consider education and scientefic researches too. First of all, UK will no longer receive funds for researches. And, they will no longer receive students from other EU states via related student Exchange programs. This will slow down progress scientefic advancement, and it’s something really important for a G8 country. This will have negative impacts in the sense of economics too. Academic staff will probably fired.
By a security standpoint, it is highly beneficial for the UK to leave EU. With UK exiting, it’s completely independent. It no longer has the EU controlling its every action.
Also, the EU is currently busy with immigration and refugee problems. Brexit will rid the UK of these problems, and with the UK no longer responsible, it won’t have to take in immigrants or refugees.
In the short run, it’s not beneficial for the UK to leave the EU. But, in the longer run, the benefits cannot be ignored. This, however, will cost EU a lot in the long run. It may be beneficial for the UK, but it’s highly destructive for EU. And countries weakening around the UK will also damage the UK itself; the countries may not agree as much to the trade deals, causing the UK loss of money.
As we can see, it’s really unclear whether or not this decision is beneficial for the UK or the EU. This may cause more and more countries to leave the EU. This may result in the EU disbanding, creating even more problems for Europe.
This scenario is more than likely too. As a result of today’s World shifting more to conservative and traditional idealogies, nationalism is on the rise again. In fact, nationalism plays a big part in Brexit. Many right wing politicians are in favor of Brexit, claiming that Brexit will sever the ties that are keeping the UK from achieving its potential. The idea of nationalism can cause problems within the EU, causing it to disband.
Nationalism in the UK causes problems in and of itself too. This was not the only referandum that was done in the UK. Scotland in a similar situation wanted to leave the UK. The referandum failed, but as a result, Scotland said that it might refuse consent for legislation that is required to leave the EU, causing damage to Brexit.
These were the pros and cons awaiting UK. If we summarize them, yes there are lots of important threats UK has to face and can not avaoid. But that doesn’t mean UK will always go down to negative after now on. No, after surviving this first phase of threats, UK will be still quite able stand up and go on back to up. Of course, this is not an easy task, but I don’t think this is something a state like UK can’t take care of.
Above all these, Brexit is now an inspiration. UK’s act did and will inspire other nations. This will be a big threat to life of EU. First of all now it’s more questionable for candidate states to join EU or not. EU lost one of the biggest economies and power it had, so it can be expected for EU to be less impressive from now on. Having the best economy is crucial target for all states. But in the age of strong states of ours, everyone wants to have the best economy, not only being a part of it. Future is quite blurry for our World. We are experiencing change 7/24. Like, new cryptocoin* economy, new terrorist organizations, new diseases, technological advancements. It’s really hard to adapt to these changes. It’s even harder when you are a part of organization when someone makes decisions for you. So economical independency is important, in case of these changes would lead to WW3 someday, it’s important to have some friends. So, unlike economical unions, it is still important have a side, side that you will share same enemies with your friends some day.
Considering this, I thinks it is likely to see Frexit, Esexit, Gerexit etc. in upcoming years. Times we living in are times that “take care of yourself”. And World is ready for these times, too. We are already back to following one, single idealistic characters, and letting them to rule our nations. Every state now wants produce their own energy, food, services, weapons, nukes (!), etc… If we would be able to watch everything going on, on a giant screen we would probably think that “I think a storm is approaching, there can’t be an another explanation for this”.
This storm can be a war, an economic crisis, famine, drought… Or nothing important. But World is up to something, that is for sure. Brexit will go down to history as being biggest and earliest implication of this. May be not like an event like Industrial Revolution, French Revolution, Red Revolution* etc. but that doesn’t mean that we won’t remember Brexit as an important milestone in the future.
That was Brexit. I tried to give some broad understanding of what happened, pros of cons of it for UK and its people, and some predictions and comment about its meaning what it can make way to later. I am still considering Brexit as a milestone, but who knows, it can be remembered as “someting done by UK but wasn’t had an particular impact to anything”. Well, I don’t think so. Considering all things that are changing and shaping in the World, Brexit should surely will have some important place in it.
*Cryptocoin, or cryptocurrency, is a digital asset work as a medium of exhange that uses cryptography to secure its transactions.
*Red Revolution, also known as October Revolution, 1917 Revolution.
RESOURCES
• https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2016/07/05/3-reasons-brits-voted-for-brexit/2/#9685ece672ec
• "Article 50: Theresa May to trigger Brexit process". BBC News. 20 March 2017. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
• http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-32810887
• https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/06/brexit-pros-and-cons-should-britain-stay-eu
• Mayhew, Ken (2017-03-01). "UK higher education and Brexit". Oxford Review of Economic Policy.
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