British Disillusionment with the European Union (BREXIT)

On the 23rd of June 2016, Britain held a referendum called “Brexit” to determine whether the future
of Britain lied within the European Union (EU) or outside of it. The Brits voted out. The destiny of
Britain was thus not decided by the corporate elites or politicians who had prophesied that “Brexit”
would be an apocalyptic event and yes apocalyptic it was, as it upset the established world order,
but by the masses and the working class Britons who were disgruntled with the globalization and
believed that it was being shoved down their throats.

The vote was a close call between the “leavers” (~51%) and the “remainers” (~49%) with a very
surprising result that favoured the “leavers”. The voting pattern indicated that voters in and around
London and in Scotland voted to remain in the EU while the rest of the country clearly voted for an
exit. The

The majority of “remain campaigners” dismissed the legitimate and genuine concerns of the
populace regarding mass immigration, globalization and to a certain extent multiculturalism as
racism xenophobia and intolerance. There were others still like the prime minister of U.K., David
Cameroon, who vigorously campaigned to mobilize support for the “remain” campaign stressing that
the future of UK would be secure within the EU. However his tireless efforts and campaigning were
in vain as he could not strike a chord with or appeal to the disenchanted masses who just saw him
as symptomatic of the decadent and dysfunctional political establishment. Instead of engaging in
healthy political debate the “remainers” adopted an attitude of condescension and claimed the moral
high ground. The big media outlets ridiculed the UKIP party and Nigel Farage who spearheaded
“Brexit”. All this only helped in building the “anti-establishment” narrative and played into the hands
of “leave campaigners”. This feeling of disenfranchisement and antipathy of the working class
towards the political establishment culminated in “Brexit”.

I would like to give the readers some background about the European Union (EU). The EU was
formed in the post-war years as an economic pact to facilitate trade amongst the European nations
and reduce hostility among the member nations after the divisiveness of the war. It was to be an
antidote to the rampant nationalism that led to the devastation and destruction of the World War II.
At the time of its inception it consisted of six members only; UK joined the single market in 1973.

The “leavers” believe that at the core of it, the EU is an elitist organization which aims to concentrate
power in the hands of a few unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. It aims to deprive member states of
their sovereignty and create a United States of Europe which is inconceivable for the average
European. Also while there were the odd benefits of joining the EU which include the common
currency, no trade barriers and visa-free movement of EU citizens amongst the member states, the
disadvantages greatly outweighed the advantages and slowly people started getting disillusioned
with the European project. The most fundamental and grave concerns with EU are accountability
and democracy. Even though the EU imposes legislation on 29 countries, these countries have zero
part in the decision making process. If this was not absurd enough, the decision making power lies
bizarrely in the hands of five unelected bureaucrats who are called the EU presidents .The EU
parliament is the only parliament where MP’s cannot initiate, repeal or propose legislations which
means once a law has been passed it is unquestionable. The “leavers” believe that the EU
membership also dealt a huge blow to British industries like fishing mining and steel as they faced
severe decline and slacked due to the number of regulations and trade barriers set by the EU.The
EU instead of proving a competitive and conducive environment for industrial growth and free trade
has institutionalized protectionism and multiple tariffs and regulations to protect the interests of big
European corporations. There are heavy import duties and tariffs on imports from outside the EU,
which has hurt the consumers and prices of commodities have gone up while quality has not
improved. The EU intellectuals have always considered it a moral obligation to control and govern
all aspects of the ordinary citizens, and as such have passed thousands of ridiculous regulations on
day to day items .A member state is liable to pay unfathomable amounts of taxpayers money to the
EU every year which in the case of Britain is 19 billion pounds. The Greek financial crisis proved to
be a major unravelling of the EU financial policy when the member states were obliged to bail out
Greece from financial debt, which almost pushed over the economies of Spain, Ireland and Portugal
into bankruptcy. The immigration policy was another major area of concern as thousands of
economic migrants and cheap workforce from Eastern Europe who lacked English fluency were
allowed to migrate to England while English speaking people from Canada and Australia and other
countries were subject to multiple legal processes. This immigration policy also discriminated against
the local British workforce who were forced out of their jobs as migrants were willing to perform the
same jobs for cheaper wages while also enjoying the generous welfare state. The refugee crisis of
2015 also proved to be a major undoing of the EU as the member states were coerced to take in
refugees under the EU refugee resettlement programme against the wishes of the people.

The “remainers” on the other hand believe that “Brexit” will isolate the British economy and this is a
denigrate step as far as merging Britain with the global economy is concerned. The “Brexit” victory
has sent economic shockwaves through global markets and Britain lost its top AAA credit
rating. Looking at this the Bank of England cut interest rates and took other emergency steps to stop
the UK from slipping into a recession. Additionally there is ongoing uncertainty over what will happen
once Britain leaves the EU because it has to make new trade agreements with the rest of the
world. A lot of global organizations that had setup their EU head-quarters in Britain will move out as
an outcome of “Brexit”.

However at this moment the EU elites who thought that the European project would be an irreversible
juggernaut are coming to terms with how mistaken and out of touch they were. The rejection of the
EU known as euro-skepticism is not a phenomenon confined to Britain it is spreading all across
Europe, from the Netherlands to France to Italy .The nationalists and populists are rising and it is a
revolution. It would not be wrong to say that Switzerland and Norway are the poster child’s of non
EU countries as after all these countries have consistently ranked first and second on the European
prosperity index.

The next steps for Britain would be impose “Article 350” that will provide a two year negotiation
window to Britain to conclude the agreement of its exit from the EU. There is also talk of the status
of Britain that will negotiate during this period.

This is a complex situation and a lot of questions need to be answered that will unravel the way
forward. At the moment its wait and watch!

At the end I would like to say

Heil den Völkern
Power to the people