As someone from the United States, I had to pull a Tony Stark and learn about the European Union quickly as I saw the #Brexit trending on Twitter.
Sure, I knew that the European Union existed, but suddenly memes appeared, United States politics got involved, and everyone has an opinion about The United Kingdom stepping out of the European Union. So let's break it down.
What exactly is the European Union?
The European union was formed five years after World War II, basically ensuring that the countries of the European continent would cool it with the world wars. This politico-economic union combines 28 — soon to be 27 — member countries' money and politicians into a sort of "United States of Europe" so to speak. Each country is represented in committees and decide on laws and how money is spent.
Should they "Bray" or should they "Bro"?
Reasoning behind Brexit and Bremain
After my failed attempt of making a witty heading, I am seeing why #Brexit and #Bremain went viral. Anyways, as with the United States having our conservative and liberal parties, Republican and Democrat, respectively, the United Kingdom had more conservative groups wanting to leave the EU and liberal groups wanting to remain.
The reasoning to leave the European Union could lie in a loss of autonomy for the UK. EU laws go over the helmet of all member country laws, and understandably that could be seen as particularly uncool.
Another big issue fueling the referendum was the immigration policy. Those that supported "Brexit" didn't believe that The UK had the means to take in anymore refugees or immigrants with their current public service programs. They felt that their money that went towards maintaining the European Union didn't benefit them, and after the Greek Economic Crisis, the world has become a little bit more wary of the Euro.
In short: They want control of their borders, and more bang for their buck.
As for the Bremaining people (see what I did there, much better than the sub-headline) they see the European Union as a huge component to how much The UK has advanced in terms of trade, employment and the economy. The European Union created a free market throughout Europe. By "cutting the red tape" the EU eliminated possible embargoes and trade quotas between countries. The EU has created an influx of jobs for The United Kingdom, in addition to the other member countries. With more trade and more jobs, this naturally creates a pretty healthy economic climate.
In addition to this, and the ultimate reasoning behind the creation of the European Union, it allows for protection. The EU now ensures lack of war in Europe, because they are all interdependent upon each other. As George Lindsay-Watson put in her article, "you don't go to war with people you trade with."
In short: Mo' jobs, mo' economy, less problems.
So, uh...what now?
In the time since the referendum revealed a "majority vote" to leave the European Union, now we are onto the next step of actually leaving by invoking an agreement on Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which basically says, "You know you could always leave, right? Okay, cool, just tell us if we're still cool and then we will stop enforcing our rules on you. Bye."
The current Prime Minister, David Cameron, has decided to resign by October 2017 causing some strain between the UK and US, since President Obama and Vice President Biden low-key supported #Bremain by stating that if the country left the EU that it would go "to the back of the queue" as far as some trade is concerned.
In addition to this, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the in the EU, which could cause some tension between the semi-autonomous regions of The United Kingdom.
What's to come in the upcoming month(s)? We'll just have to wait and see.
