The British are leaving! The British are leaving! The Brexit has come upon us! Many of you have probably heard about Brexit in the last couple of days. But, if you are like any typical American who doesn’t pay attention to politics beyond our American borders, you are probably asking, "What is Brexit?" Brexit is short for Britain Exit, pertaining to the vote for whether or not the British should leave the European Union. The E.U. is comprised of 28 states that are primarily of European origin. This is politically and economically huge to both those in the E.U. and to America itself, and I'm going to tell you why.
The vote for Brexit took place Thursday, June 23, 2016. Breaking down the vote, the older generation, lower class, and the less educated voted primarily for Brexit, while the younger generation, those who had an education higher than GSCE (General Certificate of Secondary Education, the equivalent of American high school equivalent), and the immigrants and minorities voted mostly against Brexit. Since the older generation vastly outnumbers the younger generation in Britain, the vote was passed for Brexit. The main reasons for the older generation to pass this law was to lower refugees' accessibility to England. As other countries in the E.U. are opening their borders to refugees, and being part of the E.U. makes travel between borders of the E.U. easily accessible, it became a relevant issue. Hilariously, the second-most-Googled question in the U.K. hours after the results were announced was, “What is the EU?,” with other gems like, “What happens if we stay/leave the EU?,” and, “What is Brexit?” Now, even though the vote was passed, this doesn’t necessarily mean that Britain will go through with it.
Any vote can be ignored by the Prime Minister. As soon as the vote passed, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned, meaning the position of prime minister is now open for election. One of the most popular and very likely to be elected is Boris Johnson, who many have claimed is the British equivalent to Donald Trump; he is in support of furthering Brexit through article 50 of the E.U. Article 50 is the two-year process of a country to leave the E.U. The exit can be delayed, but once enacted, Britain must leave the E.U. eventually.
The most immediate economic effect was the British Pound dropping from $1.49 to $1.30 U.S. This is the lowest it’s been since the 1980s. Additionally, now trading practices with Britain will become more difficult and more expensive for other E.U. countries. Further economic effects are uncertain, but from what we have seen so far, it isn’t good. In the long run, this will affect our economy, especially with Britain experiencing such a harsh recession. (On the bright side, vacationing as an American to Britain is really cheap.)
Also, on the bright side, Trump has stated, “I think there are great similarities between what happened here and my campaign. People want to take their country back.” Having connected the Brexit to his campaign, its negative effects and all, will hopefully make more people hesitant to vote for Trump.
So, in short, that is Brexit. Which is, in fact, happening, and as Americans, we should be very worried about it. Despite all its negative effects, right-wing politicians in E.U. countries like France and Spain are calling for a similar vote, along with Ireland trying again to secede from the U.K. entirely. Unfortunately, unlike the British, we can’t dump it all away into the harbor. God save the Queen.
