United Kingdom leaves European Union

This archived article was written by: Alex Holt

On June 23rd, 2016, the United Kingdom made a historic announcement to leave the European Union. The Brexit announcement not only shocked Europe but also the entire world.Two months later, Brexit isn’t very big in American media anymore, however that does not mean it is not causing chaos across the western world.Economically, Brexit will ultimately cost Britain more than £43.8 Billion ($58.1 Billion) over the next three years excluding any unforeseen costs.This not only cripples the already weakened pound, but will slow Britain’s economic growth rate to under two percent from nearly three percent in June.
The uncertainty of the UK’s economic future not only worries consumers but has begun to upset banks who currently reside in London.Many banks across the city have already began to move staff out of the city and into more regional banks in Germany and the Netherlands and have plans to move their banks’ headquarters out of London altogether which will spell even more economic doom for the world’s fifth largest economy.This is even before the UK has to deal with settling its economic ties to the EU, as Britain would still have to sort out new trade deals and settle debts with its former partner.Not only does Britain have to deal with its economic troubles, but also a new immigration policy. It is important to note that it was many Britains’ apparent hate of immigration that led to the Brexit vote and the mess that it currently is trying to survive.
The European Union has stated that they will continue with their current immigration projects despite Brexit and are attempting to negotiate with Britain to take its “fair share” of the problem.This means that the UK may not be able to achieve the goal it was trying to accomplish with Brexit anyway, leaving many pro-Brexit supporters disappointed.In an attempt to get around this, Parliament has created the Department for Exiting headed under Conservative Party member David Davis. The Department for Exiting has publicly revealed that the wish to have the UK’s exiting negotiations behind closed doors.
According to Davis, this would protect the UK’s negotiating power and allow any post-Brexit European cooperation with Britain to be more beneficial to the nation and perhaps get the immigration policy that it craves. If Britain’s plan is successful it may convince other nations who are not too happy with immigrants and refugees settling within its borders to leave the EU as well. If big European power houses such as France and Spain also decided to break the union with the EU, it may not only cause more economic and political hardship as Britain has but also destroy the lives of many of the refugees that came to escape turmoil leading to an even bigger problem.
Acknowledging the problem that Brexit has caused across Europe and parts of the Middle East, many of the UK’s overseas allies like Japan, Canada, and the United States are worried.Companies within those nations are now hesitant to invest within and UK and is prompting other companies to back out of selling their British stocks.This has not only unbalanced global financial markets but is also hurting American and other foreign business ventures.This unbalance may throw the world back into another Great Recession which would have severe implications for all of us.
Unfortunately, Britain has no way to remedy the situation as either rejoining the EU or doing nothing would be vastly unrepresentative of its people’s vote, thus Britain has one choice: To leave the EU and take the problems associated with it. Leaving the European Union is definitely one of the worst decisions the United Kingdom has ever made and only time will tell how bad it will get.