Defined Terms and Documents

Brexit unraveled  -  Great Britain and Northern Ireland vote for Brexit - 23 Jun 2016

Causes

The European Economic Community ("EEC") was founded in 1957 with just six nations; primary objective was economic cooperation.  The United Kingdom joined the EEC in 1972.   In 1975 this decision was emphatically reaffirmed by The Brits and Northern Ireland in the 1st such referendum.  Over the years the EEC enhanced its power and influence in areas of security, justice, environmental management and many others, far beyond basic trading and cooperation agreements. 

Greater integration and transfer of powers to the EU took place including further environmental policies, as well as security and defence measures.  What was considered the next logical economic step was to initiate a common currency - the euro - across all member states.  Then, between 2004 and 2007, a major and significant expansion of the EU took place. Twelve of the recently liberated nations of Eastern Europe joined the EU - a move which was seen as encouraging and supporting the emergence of their fledgling democratic governments.

Almost all of these developments could by themselves be seen as beneficial -
*        allowing freedom to trade and study in different countries of the EU;
*        supporting disadvantaged regions;
*        creating a massive trading block; and
*        introducing a unified approach to many global problems such as climate change.

However, citizens in many countries were becoming increasingly disenchanted.  In the UK, it was felt by some that the now re-named European Union was taking power away from the British government in areas quite separate from the economy - areas which had never been signed up to in 1972. This was increasingly felt despite the fact that the UK had exercised the right to remain out of certain common policies, including the Schengen Agreement and the single Euro currency.

Some Brits supported this ever closer integration of policies across Europe.  But very many others did not, and since the 1990s, the new powers assumed by the EU led to an upswell of disenchantment.

More recently, global and European events such as the debt crisis which affected several European nations, led to further worries.  And terrorist events raised fears about the free movement of people across borders, whilst religious extremism and war in the Middle East led to large numbers of refugees as well as economic migrants arriving on the shores of Europe, including the shores of the English Channel.  The EU struggled to come to terms with this problem and agree a common policy.  Most significantly for the UK, the Eastern European nations which had joined the EU in the early 21st century are not as wealthy as the nations of Western Europe - so because of the free movement of citizens across borders, many chose to come to the UK for a better standard of living.

The authority and powers of the EU had increased over the decades in many areas besides trade and economics.  The intentions throughout have been good, and in many areas beneficial.  However, this centralisation of power in Brussels meant that inevitably many policies which affect the UK were taken elsewhere, and the UK Government was not always able to countermand them even, if it wished to do so. Many saw that as an erosion of British sovereignty.  Above all, free people movement worried those who believed that too many may migrate to the UK from Eastern Europe, and far too much change may occur too rapidly in ways which were never wanted or foreseen.

It was in this climate that growing resentment towards the EU began to develop in the UK. A 'eurosceptic party' - the United Kingdom Independence Party ("UKIP") - had been set up in 1991.  After decades in the wilderness, it began to increase in popular support.  In recent general elections the UKIP attracted as much as 13% of the popular vote, and although this had not translated into parliamentary seats won, Prime Minister, David Cameron, decided in the face of growing disenchantment - even within his own party - to hold a 2nd referendum to allow the people to determine a major constitutional issue.

Effects

On 23 June 2016, 17.4 million (51.9%) Great Britain and Northern Ireland voters cast their vote by referendum to leave the European Union (comprising 28 nations).  16.14 million (48.1%) voted to remain.  Almost every single agency of the international Establishment had been deployed to sway English voters to remain – the IMF, Bank of England, OECD, big business, Goldman Sachs, all but one party leader, the World Bank, Presidents Obama, Francois Hollande (French Prime Minister), Shinzo Abe (Japan Prime Minister).  The choice to remain in the EU, or to leave the EU, was not divided along strict party lines, though the majority of senior politicians in all major political parties apart from UKIP were in favour of 'Remain'.  The great majority of senior government figures including Prime Minister campaigned to remain in the EU.

A week prior to the vote, the odds were in favour of Britain and Northern Island remaining within the EU.  The people had spoken.