In the recent past you would have heard about “Ibrexit”, “Rexit” and “Brexit”. Marquee Footballer Ibrahimowic playing his last match in his national jersey termed “Ibrexit” while Raghuram Rajan’s sudden declaration of not accepting the second term was called “Rexit” but the one which has left a global impact is “Brexit”- Britain leaving the European Union, surely the divorce of the decade. The unique thing about the divorce is that, it is being decided by a referendum. Britain is one of the most financially stable clout of the union thus leaving both the sides scathed. Britons hue and cry being the immigrants taking their part of job as they are ready to work on low wages- Indians are a part of it. On June 23rd, the referendum favoured the “Leave” group by 51.9-48.1% of votes of the “Remain” camp. 42 million voters of United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) decided the fate of the Britain and EU partnership. The European Steel and Coal Community in 1951 with 6 countries, gave European Economic Community in 1958 when more countries joined. After several failed attempts UK joined the EEC and later the EU in 1973. In the first few years of the marriage, in 1975 Britain made the first attempt for divorce with a referendum, which then favoured the “Remain” group with 67.2% vote. This time the wave shifted towards the leave group as the Britons were worried about the economy, immigration and the key decisions by the Union for Brussels were affecting UK.
Briatin’s growth was already in an aftershock of the 2008 global crises and the added pressure of Union and Brussels brought a steep slowdown in the economy by 2% in the current fiscal year. Pound fell by 7.5% in lst 12 months and GDP by 2.9%. labour party leader and the President David Cameron, is with the “remain” group as he thinks that partnership with the union is good for economy, business and foreign relations while UK Independent party and two other from Scotland and N. Ireland are spearheaded with economy and immigration problems for the “leave” camp.
Yesterday, I have read that 3 lakh new petitions have been filed by those who voted for the “leave” camp saying that they didn’t know about such consequences of the referendum and would like to revoke new referendum. A party leader said that there must be one criteria for the decision making- 60% vote majority to one camp when 75% is the total turnout of the voters- these both weren’t met in the latest referendum.
Germany, France and Italy have mentioned a non-negotiable divorce and have said to evoke the Article-50 so that the process of leaving the camp will start taking 2 years in minimum to settle down things thus clearing the uncertainty of the global market. The royal divorce would surely affect the economic values of India as Britain is the 3rd largest trade nation of India and Britain being a center of trade among the countries of European Nations. TATA which is the biggest employer of Britain (1,10,000 employees) has faced a $10 billion loss in just one day as the trade norms will change as per the exit.
For me, it is a stupid idea to go with the majority, being a democratic nation it must have the view of the public but then decision making should be done by the government high chairs. Not everyone is well aware of the consequences and not every time the majority is true, the future of the nation must be decided by the law makers keeping in mind the majority of the population. As the uncertainty still present at stake are polity, economy, foreign relations and identity.
By: Ayush Verma
Editor, DUTimes
