Now that The U.K. is faced with a slow but definite 24-month exodus from the E.U., what will BREXIT mean?
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Things have changed in England. BREXIT, as it is known, has changed quite a few things but not necessarily the way the media has been reporting. Some things didn’t change at all.
First, some personal disclosure: I am a British Citizen. I was born over a decade before Britain’s dance with Europe began in 1972. That is when Britain first joined the Common Market—also known as the European Economic Community (EEC), which got rebranded in 1993 as the European Union (EU).
Between 1975 and 1980 I lived in Germany and Belgium, before relocating permanently to Los Angeles in 1981.
I remember life before and after we joined the EU.
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THE GREAT FEARS
When England joined the EEC, there were three great fears which would ruin our country:
(1) We would lose our proud Sterling currency for one of the French Francs or German Marks. We didn’t. Even when the Euro was introduced in 1999 by the EU to homogenize the paper money system across Europe, it didn’t set foot in England (or in 10 other EU member countries).
(2) We would lose our Imperial measuring system by converting to metric. We mostly didn’t. The metric system that would replace our inches, yards and miles only seemed to replace our petrol pump gauges. We still had 30 mph limits to ignore.
(3) Worst of all, we would lose our monarchy. We didn’t. Our monarchy is still strong and growing, with HRH Queen Elizabeth II celebrating 90 years of age this year.
For all the fears that were voiced about being absorbed into the European Union, none of the biggest came to bear.
THE BENEFITS
One of the benefits of joining the EU was to be the ease of traveling across borders among member countries. This is obvious when there are no physical borders between you, so you can walk between France and Germany without any challenge. However with 22 miles (at the closest point) between England and its closest neighbor, France, that ease is mitigated by logistics. Then some enterprising engineers built the Chunnel (Channel Tunnel) to allow drivers to cross from England to France unrestricted. I guess this is a benefit, considering it replaced the car and train ferries that had run for decades prior.
AND NOW WE SAY GOODBYE
The most visible faces and views of the BREXIT have been viewed as racist, xenophobic even fascist militants. So a lot of people are feeling understandably upset that these views seemed prevalent and in charge of what happened. And the immediate drop in the pound’s value against the dollar, and the immediate fallout in the stock exchange are added incentives to fan the flames of fear and calamity.
I strongly suspect that is smoke and mirrors. One of the biggest reasons for the European Union’s existence is the unification of the European countries rather like the states in the United States. The benefits of this include a common currency, common rules and laws, and a greater sense of control by the government, and the banks. This latter item is where, I believe, the greatest GOOD will happen from BREXIT.
Over the next 24 months, as England exits from the EU, there will be a lot of chatter about how bad it will be, and what we have already lost as a country.
I believe the European Union lost more in this vote than the United Kingdom did. In fact, I suspect the renewed and restored independence of Britain, will make it Great, once again.
If you are one who reads between the headlines, this action will free up England from some of the banking and governmental strings that had been extended across the channel. This is a good thing. I won’t go into any more detail than that; do your own research!
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Photo credit: Flickr/Olga Lednichenko