On June 24th, 2016 the United Kingdom had a union-wide referendum in which the inhabitants of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Island decided to either remain or leave the European Union.
The 17.4 M leavers won. But in an interesting analysis of the voting results, it would seem those who favored leaving were the English, while the Scots, Welsh, Irish, and Londoners had favored to remain in the European Union.
The results of this non-binding referendum would push the government of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union within a two-year window.
But as there are two years before the full divorcing of the Britons from the Europeans, there will be multitudes of laws, regulations, and treaties and their complexities for the UK and Brussels government to negotiate, which will be mostly out of reach of the average Briton.
Of course, everyone is wondering why Brexit happened.
Firstly, the nativist movements have been busy since PM David Cameron had ensured elements in England that voting for the Conservative Party would ensure a union-wide referendum on exiting the European Union. Fear of uncontrolled, unrestricted immigration into the UK was an obvious reason why the nativist movements won.
Secondly, there has been public anger over government policies such as austerity due to the UK’s obligations to bail-out free-riding members of the EU and their irresponsible fiscal and banking policies. Why should a Briton pay the tab on someone else’s mistakes?
Lastly, the English are angry about how the European Union, its bureaucrats, and its somewhat non-democratic organs are creating laws and regulations in Brussels that will affect British citizens. Globalization’s treasures were over exaggerated and the referendum refutes Britons’ need of it.
So far, the Brexit Fallout:
– PM Cameron loses his job and probably will be remembered as the PM who broke the Union of Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland.
– Boris Johnson ends up as the presumptuous Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
– Retaliatory Economic Policies from the EU.
– The electrification of the fringe nativist movements in EU countries resulting in more countries leaving.
– Scotland, Wales, Gibraltar, and North Ireland split from Great Britain because they want closer relations to the EU (N. Ireland having actually a border with it.
– Global Markets and the value of the British Pound Sterling crash.
The Nationsmith 