Three years ago Britain had a referendum. The EU: In or Out. The vote was split 48% to 52%. Quite close politically speaking. Three years later, Brexit delayed twice, two prime ministers and counting. And still no Brexit. And ever since, the British media talks solely about Brexit…
Brexit is significant because it is the first real way Britain has begun to isolate itself since before the Great War. In 1973, Britain joined the EU- bringing Europe closer together, but now they are going back closer to the 18th century…
Mrs May triggered Article 50 (where the UK formally declared its departure from the European Union) on the 29th of March 2017. This means that on the 29th of March 2019 Britain should have left the European Union, but Mrs May couldn’t get her controversial deal through the British Parliament. And so she resigned.
Since the vote, British stocks have plummeted with banks such as HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland stock plummeting 40% due to the uncertainties of Brexit.
The uncertainty has caused firms to move away from London and to new places, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels have all become the new headquarters of firms previously based in London.
Bloomberg Europe has moved from London to Amsterdam. The BBC reported in February that almost a third of British businesses have or will move their whole or part of their business due to the impacts Brexit has had.
So why is Brexit significant?
The significance of Brexit is immense. Not just social but political. It shows that despite the fact that is very much a tolerant and accepting society, given enough time (and a big red bus) Britain will attempt to eject all foreigners from her shores.
Not just that, jobs are at stake, you may not care about big corporations loosing millions of dollars because of the vote, but understandably it’s not them who will pay for it in the long run. It’s the employees.
But worst of all: it won’t do what it said on the tin. One of the promises the Brexiteers was to close off the borders to foreigners- something Britain won’t be able to do if it wants access to the EU’s common market. Another was that the alleged £350 million Britain sends to the EU each week will be spent on the NHS (something claimed on the aforementioned red bus).
In fact it will not be spent on the NHS but a large part of which will actually go back to the EU to pay for small luxuries Britain currently enjoys as a member of the EU. But due to the vote and the disorganisation and unpreparedness that surrounds it. Britain instead of being stronger because of the vote, has actually become a laughing stock, and their economy has suffered significantly as a result.
What does Brexit entail for the future?
What Brexit entails is relatively uncertain. However some experts have said that regardless of what sort of Brexit the British people get there will be a 2-2.5% GDP loss, something that it is estimated to take 10 years to recover from.
As well as the vote causing a reduced national income estimated to be in between 0.6% and 1.3%. Some analysts even go as far to say that Brexit could cause a global recession, with some saying it could be as bad as The Great Recession or the Great Depression.