When David Cameron announced that a referendum would be held on whether Britain would stay in the EU, many believed that the remain side would win and all would be put to bed. Few realised that Brexit would happen or how much uncertainty it would cause for both Britain and Europe.
Many people who voted to leave the EU were spurred on by the now empty promises of UKIP leader Nigel Farage and the Brexit party. Such as pouring the money we spend on being in the EU into the underfunded NHS and lowering the rate of immigration. Both promises have since been played down and dismissed by Farage.
People voted in favour of Brexit because of racism. A large number of British people want to stop immigration, so they ‘can’t take their jobs’ and ‘overrun’ the country. One of the things that makes the UK great is how multi-cultural it is due to immigration. London, Manchester, Birmingham and other UK cities are filled with hubs of cultures that make the UK a progressive and inclusive country.
When Nigel Farage said that Friday the 24th of June should become Great Britain’s independence day, I laughed with shock. Britain’s history is filled with colonizing, supressing, torturing and murdering millions of people throughout the world in pursuit of power. When these countries liberated themselves from oppressive British rule, they celebrated this victory with an Independence Day. To compare freeing your country from a powerful oppressive empire with the European Union’s controlling over Britain’s laws and finance is disgusting.
Britain’s complex history still affects the world today. The British Empire colonized countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, Australia and the Pacific. Britain was able to become the powerful country it is today by invading and colonizing, removing cultures and languages of these places and tearing them apart. Britain has caused lasting damages in African countries, such as Nigeria, Egypt and Kenya. British rule in the Middle East has created much of the area’s unstableness. Britain captured Bagdad, Iraq in 1917 and had a turbulent relationship until Iraq’s independence in 1932. And countries closer to home like Northern Ireland and its fragile relationship with the Republic of Ireland. A relationship that is now under even more strain as Brexit questions not only their borders but the Good Friday Agreement. Which gives both Republic of Ireland Citizens and Northern Irish Citizens freedom to cross borders.
The Brexit argument was fuelled by telling voters that Britain needed to become independent and leave the European Union. It would then be able to become the powerful country it once was and show Europe that the UK is sick of being told what to do. But the UK’s history is filled with British imperialism and oppression. I’m not saying Brexit will make the UK a large empire again, but British rule has deeply affected countless countries around the world. They shouldn’t be able to back out of the EU and ignore the worlds troubles of terrorism and immigration.
Brexit has caused major confusion, financially and politically, in the EU and opened up more questions than answers
