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The Beginning

The European Economic Community (EEC) was established in 1957 and would become was the precursor for today’s European Union. It was made up of France, West Germany, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and was put in place with the signing of the Treaty of Rome. It was what was hoped to be the final attempt at securing economic cooperation between the aforementioned European countries, allowing for more loose trade and, hopefully, less strained military relationships. It allowed free flow of goods and people, eliminating borders between countries in the community. In 1973, The UK finally made its way into the EEC, but was quickly having second thoughts. In 1975, just two years later, The UK held a referendum (a public vote), to decide whether or not they should stay. The results came in with a 67 percent of citizens opting to stay, separated mainly by geographical location. The UK’s main administrative counties and regions, along with Northern Ireland, voted in majority to stay, while only Shetland and the western Isles chose to leave. Political affiliation also played a major role in both the outcome of the votes, with many political parties such as the Labour party becoming split on the issue. This split ended up becoming a separate, Pro-European party known called the Social Democratic Party. In 1984, after Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s campaign to lower the British payments to the EEC budget, tensions began to come to a head. The UK was one of the poorest nations in the European Economic Community at the time, yet it was paying much more into the budget than other countries because of several economic drawbacks. Thatcher negotiated a reduction of Britain’s contribution from twenty percent of the EU budget to about twelve percent, which has stayed in place till this day.

In 1993, the Maastricht treaty went into effect creating the European Union (EU) with which the EEC (now shortened to just EC, the European Community) was a major component. The new EU was made in hopes of integrating Europe’s countries both politically and economically by including common foreign policies, citizenship rights, and for most members of the EU, a common currency—the Euro. In 1997, the Labour Party’s Tony Blair was elected as Prime Minister. He was extremely pro-European Union and worked to rebuild ties between the UK and Europe. There were several roadblocks, however, as the EU put several trade policies and bans in place in order to restrict British beef exports due to the “mad

cow” scare of the late 90’s. Battles for trade rights on other products went on between Britain and the EU for years, including the imposed chocolate ban, where British chocolate was blocked from the rest of Europe for years.

With economic unrest providing a stark backdrop for a continually growing migrant problem, supporters for a British Exit—Brexit—from the EU grew in number. David Cameron, Prime Minister at the time, promised to renegotiate UK/EU relations in his next term, should he be reelected. A referendum was held in February 2016 to once again decide whether or not to stay or leave. Results came in with a majority choosing to leave, though by a margin of less than two percent.

The End

Theresa May was elected to be Prime Minister that same year following Cameron’s resignation. She announced her intention to invoke Article 50 of the European Union, giving formal notice of Britain’s intent to leave the EU. On March 30, 2019, Britain was set to make its departure from the Union. That day however, Parliament rejected May’s withdrawal agreement, and set the new deadline for October of 2019. The EU adopted a stance of strict refusal to renegotiate the Withdrawal Agreement. Soon after the rejection of her plan, May resigned. After Boris Johnson became prime minister on 24 July 2019 and met with EU leaders, the EU changed its stance. A revised withdrawal agreement was decided upon and endorsed by both the UK government and the EU commission publicly. Johnson’s campaign was heavily focused on the “get Brexit done” slogan, with which he promised a deal that would finally deliver on the ideas of his predecessors. With Johnson in the main seat, the Conservative party gained an 80-seat majority in parliament, which subsequently introduced a bill to ratify the withdrawal agreement. It passed its second reading in the House of Commons and became law on January 23, 2020.

Exit day was January 31, 2020 at 11.00 p.m. GMT.

The Pros:

As its much to early to tell is the promises of Boris Johnson and the British Brexiteers will pay off, going over the ideas and with which Brexit was campaigned upon will give us an idea of the steps the UK government is planning on taking going forward.

1. Brexit is hoped to play an important role in helping quell the immigration problem currently irking the UK government. Membership in the EU guarantees open borders with which European citizens can move from country to country, some of which who are using welfare without justifications and flooding the economy with cheap labor. Leaving the EU is hoped to solve said immigration problem.

2. Moving out of the EU will also hopefully allow Britain to establish sovereignty from Europe. EU parliament pass laws that benefit Europe, but not necessarily Britain, and Brits have to follow those laws whether they put them in place or not. Leaving the EU might sever those legal ties and allow the UK to work completely under their own laws.

3. That sovereignty will also allow Britain to make its own trade laws. Membership in the EU guarantees certain rights and opportunities when it comes to trade, however, several people argue that the UK can stand on its own two feet and doesn’t need to trade in the EU. If this works out, it could promise Economical Independence.

4. Members of the European Union pay an average of £12 billion every year in order to remain a member in the European Union. Brexit will cause Britain to become a completely separate economy from the EU, not having to abide by European Economic rules and regulations, and there’s an argument that the UK will prosper because of that.

5. For these reasons (and lots of others) some brits think pulling out will return Britain to its former glory, with tighter borders and greater sovereignty for their island nation.

The Cons:

Some people, however, have some misgivings about pulling out. Pro-Europeans are no small piece of the UK population, and their doubts are of no small consequence.

1. Around 3.5 million jobs in the UK might depend on EU membership. Leaving might cause manufacturers that have remained loyal to the EU to go abroad.

2. Plenty of the top British scientists come from elsewhere in Europe. That might change in a huge way now that Britain is out of the EU. Research and Development in the UK might be at major risk of falling behind. The UK also receives a relativity large allowance from the EU for research

funding. That has a high likelihood of vanishing with Britain’s recent departure from the European Union.

3. For those Brits that wish to emigrate to the EU, that just got doubly hard because of the now closed borders.

4. Security might also become a massive problem now with the lack of support from the rest of Europe. If for any reason Britain were to get into a military altercation with another country, there’s no guarantee they can count on the other European countries to back them up.

That’s about 0.5% of the arguments for and against Brexit, but now that it had gone through, there’s not much UK citizens can do but wait for their government to either deliver the promises of its campaign, or try and manage the fallout that might descend upon the nation.