BREXIT: In or Out?

• 06.08.2016, 19:48
•  Europe,  World

www.catholicherald.co.uk

The closer the day of BREXIT is (June 24), the tenser the struggle between proponents of opposing camps become. According to the results of the recent polls, the percentage of the people, who want the UK to stay in the EU and the ones who are for the UK’s exit from the union are very close to each other. According to the poll tracker produced by the Economist to give a general picture of the recent poll results, the percentage of the people who are for "Leave" is 43, while the percentage of the people who are for "Stay" is 42. The decisive role will play those people, who are not determined yet and their percentage is 12. To make the picture clearer let us refer to the arguments brought by each side.

People, who are for the UK’s staying in the EU (inners) mainly focus on the economic issue.  Being a member of the EU, Britain has a number of economic advantages such as free tariff trade with other EU countries. The EU countries are more than 50 percent of the consumers of the UK export goods. Those people also mention the importance of investments and the threat of the diminished inner investments the UK will face, once it is no longer perceived as a gateway to the EU countries. Another main argument brought by the proponents is the threat of unemployment: they argue around three million jobs are linked to the trade with the EU countries.

In contrast, the opponents find the economic benefits in the UK’s living the EU. They argue that the UK will save money if it does not pay a membership fee to the Union. As the Week reports in 2015 the UK paid £8.5bn to the Union.  As for the trade, the proponents think that leaving the Union, the UK will benefit by cooperating with a number of small and medium firms, which currently avoid cooperation with the UK because of EU’s regulatory rules.  As for the investments, the proponents think that the exit from the EU will attract more investment to the UK as anti-EU movements will choose UK as the best place to invest. The opponents also speak about security benefits the UK will derive by leaving the EU as the closed borders with the EU countries will prevent the migrants’ and terrorists’ flow to the UK.  The so called outers also think that by leaving the EU, UK can re-establish it international image of an independent country.

Of course, the decision of the inners and outers is not and cannot be determined by only those few factors mentioned above, notwithstanding the fact that they are considered the major ones. However, they can give some general directions to properly weigh all pros and cons before taking this or that side.