English Exam

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Another argument for Britain's exit is immigration. Findings from a British Social Attitudes (BSA) survey shows that "Brexit was the result of widespread concern over the numbers of people coming to the UK - millions of whom have done so under the EU's freedom of movement rules". In other words, the EU principle of "free flow of people" makes it possible for many to migrate to the UK, and Britain itself has little power to control their borders. So anti-immigration feelings rose, and the frustration with the lack of control they had over their own nation grew. As a result, many UK citizens saw it best to leave the EU, so that they could look out for their own interests and control their borders as they pleased. Now that we've looked at some of the reasons why people voted to leave the EU, it is also easier to understand the categorized results. For example, we could argue that people of older age are less tolerant of other people and cultures, and are therefore more opposed to the "free flow of people" than the younger age groups.

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Brexit would also have a great impact on trade for the United Kingdom, but the severity of this impact depends on whether the decision to exit the EU will be a hard Brexit or a soft Brexit. The EU has stated that they would like for the UK to remain in the Customs Union, which would result in a soft Brexit, but the UK government is leaning towards wanting a hard Brexit. With a potential hard Brexit, Britain would lose access to the free market, which would result in large economic challenges. The EU would also be affected, as they would no longer be able to trade with the UK. Brexit would then mean that all trade would happen within the UK, or with countries outside the EU. To avoid this, they could negotiate with the EU and decide on a deal where the UK pays for trading with Europe, kinda like the deal between EU and Norway, but this would result in a soft Brexit.

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However, as the majority of Britons saw the decision to leave the EU as primarily beneficial, there may be some serious consequences. Theresa May entered office as Prime Minister shortly after the referendum and she states that she will work towards reducing the number of immigrants granted access into the UK. This may sound promising for the skeptics of multiculturalism, but it has a downside that not many of those skeptics have taken into consideration. If the flow of migrants is reduced, the economy may suffer. A key requirement for a good economy is, in fact, that migrants need to fill jobs. Seeing as how the migrants in the UK currently are filling jobs in health care and construction sectors, a stricter regulation on immigration might damage these sectors, and the unemployment level will drop considerably. As a result, the economy may become rather unstable.

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In this presentation, I will be talking about the outcome of the United Kingdom European Union Membership Referendum, which is commonly referred to as Brexit, as well as the coming consequences of that outcome. Because of the time restriction, I will focus mainly on the political and economical consequences, but also briefly talk about the consequences that the referendum will have on the Kingdom itself.

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Now; to understand why people voted as they did, we need to look at a couple of the main arguments for Brexit. First of all, the EU is said to threaten British sovereignty. This concern is often expressed by conservative politicians such as the former London Mayor, Boris Johnson. Over the past few decades, EU-treaties have given an increasing amount of power from individual member states to the central EU bureaucracy in Brussels. Since the EU has been granted authority on several political subjects, many Britons feel that they are losing the right to govern themselves and make their own laws. Many also feel that Britain is paying large sums of money for services that don't benefit from, so by leaving, they would also have more control over their own economy.

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Lastly, the EU referendum will likely result in an even greater divide between the nation's countries. As we saw earlier in the presentation, the vote was split between the countries. England and Wales voted in favor of Brexit, while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU. The nation already has very split nationalities, and there have been many debates on whether we should refer to the UK as one nation or as nations. The split in the vote between the countries may contribute to splitting up the nation, and it's a clear example that shows their differences in interests. These differences can easily drive the countries further away from each other, and future referendums for countries to leave the UK may come. This will, again, likely lead to both economic, political and social challenges, as each individual country will not stand as strong on their own. We saw evidence of this in 2014, when Scotland had a referendum to leave the UK but voted against it, partly due to the fear of greater economic and political issues.

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Now, two years after the referendum was held, we see that many Britons have changed their mind about Brexit. YouGov's newest poll shows this little trend that people are turning against Brexit. We see that 45% believe that Britain is wrong to leave the EU, while 42% believe that they made the right decision. This may be because of the increased focus on Brexits possible consequences, and the realization that leaving the EU could offer some serious challenges.

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So, this referendum was held on June 23rd, 2016, and it gave Britons the opportunity to vote on whether or not the UK should leave the European Union. As we can see here, a majority of 51.9% voted in favor of leaving, making the decision final. But I think its important to investigate the results of the referendum a little further, so I've included some statistics that shows the results by countries and age groups. We can see that in England and Wales, the majority of the population voted to leave, while Scotland and Northern Ireland had a clear majority of Brexit opponents. And when looking at the age groups, we see that younger people, till the age of 49, voted to remain a part of the EU, while the older part of the British population was clearly in favor of leaving.

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To sum it up, the Brexit vote was a close call, but it resulted in the decision for the UK to leave the EU. However, the newly shed light on the consequences, including the political, economic and social challenges, may have changed peoples minds, and we might see a soft brexit instead of the hard brexit that was first intended by the British government.