‘BREXIT DONE’: All You Need To Know About Brexit
It was the morning of 23rd June 2016 when 66 million Britons came out of their homes to vote for Britain’s fate. 55.9% Britons voted in favour of leaving the European Union however, 48.1 wanted to stay with the European Union. This historic referendum is known as Brexit which is the term used for Britain’s exit from the much-coveted European Union. This exists was a much-anticipated exit and was popularly campaigned. Just like any an electoral campaign, the referendum also had two parties, one faction supported the exit which included the now, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, and the other faction who was against it included the then Prime Minister David Cameroon. Deciding on the policies another British Prime Minister Theresa May had to step down since she could not negotiate between the European Union and the British Government.
Ever since the Brexit, there has been an exchange of some unfamiliar air between the European Union and The British. The entire world has turned its attention on Britain and its foreign policy that would be adopted to establish relations with the rest of the world. The unified European Union had a single foreign and business policy for the entire world. Furthermore, it had a unified parliament, constitution and army. European Union (EU) can be accounted for a supranational entity that held the whole of Europe together.
But the question arises if the European Union was such an efficient body why did Britain part its ways EU
Britain has been a part of the European Union since 1973 and has had a higher position in the decision making of the EU. Britain was one of EU’s major contributors along with Germany and France. With spending 55 million every day, Britain had to cut down on the expenses within the nation. Major services like healthcare, education, road facility and caregiving to the elderly were facing a stunted setback. Therefore, a motion was moved in the parliament to exit the European Union so that Britain could focus on its internal infrastructure. Another factor that distanced Britain from the EU was the interference of the EU in the matters of that of Britain. The immigration and the migration policy of the EU permitted anybody to settle in any part of Europe and Britain being a lucrative place to settle, faced the highest number of migrants. Therefore, Britain desired to claim its sovereignty back by removing the shackles of the EU.
Britain was facing many internal clashes with the EU while exiting the union since Britain was a major contributor EU too was reluctant for Britain to go. With the effect of Article 50, Britain entered a two-year negotiation period with the EU. During this time the Westminster faced a lot of shifts and changes making Theresa May the Prime Minister and then de-railing her. With the objection of ‘get Brexit done’ Boris Johnson made an unprecedented majority of 80 seats in the parliament becoming the Prime Minister.
Impact of Britain on leaving EU
Even though Britain has parted ways with the EU completely as of 31 January 2020, Britain must pay a price for it. Britain must pay 33 billion pounds to the EU as a part of its ‘divorce bill’. This is one of the major setbacks that Britain had to face. Along with this, many businesses have moved to Brussels (EU headquarters) which has further slowed the economy. In the new negotiation, Britain has claimed that it wouldn’t be a ‘Custom’s Union’ of the EU. This implies that separate trade agreements would have to be made between Britain and the EU. Also, there would in an exponential increase in the tariff on the goods purchased from the European Union and vice versa. The tariff would be imposed on the goods that are to be purchased by both parties in the future and don’t apply to the goods that purchased or are in the process.
The 3 million EU nationals in Britain would continue to work in the same way without a work visa and the 1.3 million British nationals would continue to work in various European countries the same as before.
If the borders are to be talked about Britain has left the decision of the relations between Ireland and the European Union on the internal administration of Ireland. If Ireland continues to be in the same trading pool with the European Union, Britain would have to formulate separate VAT and Tariff agreements even with Northern Ireland.
These are some surface changes that have had an impact on Britain, but the British economy is continuing to deteriorate even further because of the black clouds of uncertainties. The two- year negotiation has brought many sectors back into a steady pace from a regular fast pace. According to The Balance, Brexit has immensely slowed the British economy. The growth rate has dipped from 2.4% in 2015 to 1.5% in 2018 and this rate is expected to even further down by 6.7% in the next decade.
Employment
As mentioned before the EU enterprises have completely made a shift from Britain taking with them some major employers. Therefore, it is expected that Britain might have what can be called a major unemployment spree in nearing time. It is deemed that Germany will have a shortage of 3 million young skilled labour by 2030, the sad part being Britain nationals would not be able to apply for those jobs.
There will be in flux for about a decade or so. Britain would have to work on creating job opportunities for its residents and then for the migrants. If we talk about London, it has seen a great dip in years. The growth of London which was 1.4% in 2018 was nearly at a standstill in 2019. The investments had also dipped down by 11%.
As the world has entered a new post-pandemic era, many changes will become distinctive to every nation. This can be said with equal rigour that Britain would be a center of change. Retain has already headed to a new direction of the new world order. Now the most notable thing to be observed would be the opportunity management of Great Britain. Post-Brexit Britain should change for the best. Let’s see where Britain will head itself.
