As we all know, or should know, the United Kingdom voted in a referendum on whether they would like to remain in the European Union or not on June 23. Unfortunately, the U.K. decided that they no longer wished to be a part of the EU as of June 24 and instead decided that they would like to be the first country to begin the complex process of removing themselves from the EU. It appears that the U.K. just really wanted to be the first to start on its teenage rebellion stage early. While I myself do not live in the U.K. nor in the EU itself, I can't help but ask the U.K. why. Why did you back out of one of the largest economic unions and watch your pound fall to the lowest levels it has been since the mid-1980s?
First we should probably address what the United Kingdom even is. Most people (surprisingly) still believe that the U.K. is just Britain itself, which is understandable considering Britain has been referred to as different interchangeable names throughout all of history. Currently, the United Kingdom consists of Britain, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Now on to the European Union, which is much more complicated and frustrating than the simple United Kingdom. Many Americans have the idea that the EU is a power hungry entity waiting to gobble up all the member states in Europe and create a European superstate. The EU is not Napoleon, though, and is first and foremost an economic and monetary union. While the EU has tried many attempts to strengthen its power into more military and governmental control, it has ultimately failed in these attempts. In fact, the U.K. was one of the only states to receive rebates from the EU and full blown opt-outs from many policies such as the Euro.
When you look at the U.K.'s presence in the EU, you have to question why the hell someone would leave such a rich economic union. First and foremost, the U.K. ignored all warnings about the economic impact leaving would have. In fact, one politician was quoted as saying something along the lines of the people of the U.K. were tired of experts' opinions. Because ignoring experts' opinions is smart, right? If you don't want to hear what experts have to say, just ignore it and continue about your day! Who cares if your pound drops rapidly and you will soon no longer have access to one of the largest trading hubs in the world, at least you won't have immigrants coming in a stealing so many of your jobs, right?
That leads us to the next problem: immigration. Nigel Farage, one of the U.K.'s equivalents to Donald Trump and leader of the UKIP party, got voters to rally around the idea that leaving the EU would mean that fewer immigrants would enter the U.K. and voters' jobs would magically be saved. Unless the U.K. wants to completely shut itself off from trade with the rest of the world, there will still be immigrants arriving in the U.K. Maybe Farage and Trump, however, can get together and talk about building two walls around two separate states! While Trump gets Mexico to pay for his wall, maybe Farage can get the European Union to pay for his wall considering that the value of the pound is rapidly dropping. Even though Farage claims that he isn't a Trump supporter and building a wall would be impractical, he's probably just mad that he didn't think of the wall first.
To be completely fair, however, the U.K. has always been an outsider in EU politics. In fact, euroskepticism has run rampant in the U.K. for years. One of the large reasons that the leave vote won, was simply the voter turnout among the older demographic. In fact, many younger voters wanted to remain in the EU. The problem in the U.K. is not that everyone hates the EU and the rest of Europe, it's the changing ideology between two age groups. While the younger age groups find themselves identifying more with the rest of Europe, the older age groups find themselves still pushing for the U.K.'s independence. This independence comes at a price, however. With the pound already rapidly decreasing in value, and the EU telling the U.K. that it needs to start exit negotiations as quickly as possible, the U.K. is in quite a tough spot.
If you've ever said to yourself that EU and U.K. politics are boring, now is the time to get interested. Literally U.K. politics right now are decaying into a massive pile of garbage. In fact, David Cameron announced that he will be leaving the office of Prime Minster by October, and the Scotland is opting for another Scottish referendum in order to break away from the U.K. since Scotland wished to remain in the EU. I'm sure as exit negotiations begin, however, the pile of garbage will only grow bigger.
