Post-Brexit impact

Module Title: News analysis and press review

Program: Bachelor « Responsable marketing et du développement

Semester: 5

Academic year: September 2016 - June 2017

I – BACKGROUND INFORMATION.............................................................................................3

II – INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3

III – “HARD AND SOFT” BREXIT................................................................................................4

IV – ARTICLE 50............................................................................................................................4

V – TRADE WITH OTHER MEMBER OF THE EUROPEAN UNION........................................4

VI – IMMIGRATION........................................................................................................................4

VII - REFERENCES........................................................................................................................5

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I – Background information

The relationship between Britain and European Union has long been faced by myriad fears about the
Britain commitment and whether it might one time withdraw from being a member of the union, a
movement known as ‘Brexit’ (Minford, Shackleton, & al, 2016). The referendum held in June in quest
of renegotiating the Britain-European association within the referendum forced the UK to withdraw
from European membership. Despite this, there has been a narrow argument about the Brexit, paying
attention on its consequences to Britain.

In November 2015 renegotiation about the affiliation between the UK-EU was set out by Cameron
David at Chatham house. The location facilitated communicating his point that some part of the
European issues in UK politics poses national security threats, something that has been disregarded
(Gregor Irwin, 2015). The major consequence of this move for the EU has been frequently ignored
except for the contest that was supporting global relations society of diplomats and scholars. Britain
former leader of labour party, Ed Miliband warned the UK about the risks of walking out of the union
and that the EU also has been slumbering, unaware of what the exit could mean for it. The exit of one
of the prime members of the state signifies a moment with extensive unforeseen impacts for European
safety and global relation and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (Shirley Beglinger, 2016).

II – Introduction

In June 2016, the United Kingdom withdrew their international ties form the European Union.
Therefore, the term “Brexit” emerged at this period and it is a shorthand form signifying Britain exit
from the European nation. European Union is a political and economic partnership that involves
twenty-eight European nations, which foster good economic ties. The European nation began its
operations after the Second World War and its major objective was to foster a strong economic
cooperation among its members. Therefore, this meant that countries operating under the European
Union will trade together and this will foster peaceful coexistence that prevents countries into going to
war. Since then, the European nations grew to a great world market that allowed member countries to
move effectively from one nation to the other on trading terms.

The article “EU referendum morning briefing: the result”, was published on “The Guardian”, a good
and reliable British newspaper and website information on 24 th of June 2016.
United Kingdom exited the European nation after its citizens took part on a referendum and 52% of the
citizens voted that they should break relations with the European Union. However, the United Kingdom
should invoke an agreement on Article 50 that they signed on Lisbon treaty so that it can legally exit
European Union. The Lisbon treaty gives the European Union and the UK two years to decide the
terms of agreement for the split. (Phipps, 2016)

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 (Source: O’Loughlin, 2016)

The process will stand at the end of the current year and this means that presently the UK does not
have a clear deal of its predicament in terms of trade and immigration after its exit from the EU. In fact,
there are no clear terms of agreement on how Brexit will work and some policy makers suggest that it
could take UK up to six years to finalize its exit negotiations. More importantly, Britain exit terms need
to be agreed by 27 national parliaments and this will take along process before the Brexit comes into
realization. In the meantime, the UK should still abide by the European laws and treaties. However,
Britain will not be an active member and it is not allowed to take place in any decision making process
in the European Union.

III – “Hard and Soft” Brexit

The article is " Soft or hard Brexit? The EU, not Britain, has the whip hand", which was released on
"The Guardian", a British newspaper and information website, on the 24 th of November 2016.
Donald Tusk, the President of the European Council, had previously indicated that Britain would
decide to remain as part of the EU especially when they are faced with ‘Hard Brexit.' According to
Donald Tusk, it was not necessary to speculate Soft Brexit. Hard Brexit is what the Brexiteers prefer,
and it involves full access to a single market, border control, and immigration. On the other hand, Soft
Brexit is what the Remain campaigners prefer, and it was based on retaining the existing agreements
as close as possible. In Soft Brexit, exports from Britain would not be checked at the border and the
‘four freedoms’ would be upheld (Garton, 2016). The freedom stipulated was the movement of goods,
services, people, and capital.

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The article is " Why Europe will drive a hard Brexit ", which was released on "The Guardian", a British
newspaper and information website, on the 19th of November 2016.
According to recent polls that were held by the NatGen Social Research, most people who were asked
about the Brexit issue on both the leaving and remaining sides clearly wanted the EU to sell goods
and services in Britain freely and also treat individuals who want to come to live in Britain like
outsiders. The manner and the time that Britain decided to leave the EU was entirely unclear and
unexpected. After the June 23rd referendum, the possibility of the United Kingdom to change its mind
was very faint (Helm, 2016).

Before this, most of the EU leaders had thought that the UK would remain as a member of the single
market. In fact, most of them thought it was merely an advisory referendum and that the Brexit was not
bound to happen. After the Tory Party conference, Theresa May promised that Article 50 of the Lisbon
Treaty would be invoked. Together with her ministers she clearly suggested that the UK was going to
prioritize the curbs on immigration while denying free movement rules even if this meant doing away
with the single market. This meant that the UK was going to totally separate from the European Court
of Justice.

IV – Article 50

The article is "UK’s Brexit cannot pass without parliament approval", which was first released on
"Aljazeera", an Arab information website, on the 3rd of November 2016. The UK's High Court has
ruled that Theresa May's administration is not allowed to trigger the country's exit from the European
Union without the approval of the parliament. Also, Three senior judges ruled that the government
does not have the power to start EU exit talks. Brexit is considered the most important matter of this
decade.
The prime minister, Theresa May said that she plans to start the negotiation of the exit of the UK by
March 31.
Wright, a member of the government said that the lawsuit is just a barrier to adopt the result of the
June 23 referendum to leave European-union
Prime minister wants to use Royal prerogative, owned by the queen to trigger article 50 of the EU’s
treaty.
Moreover on a picture that is on the article, we can see « EU-NITY» on a banner carried by protesters
who want the UK to remain in the European Union. Their motive is to allow free movement between
their country and the rest of the European countries.

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 (Aljazeera, 2016)

The article is taken from a Chinese newspaper, released on 4 th November 2016. starts by defining the
context by explaining that the British Prime Minister Theresa May plans to bring Britain out of the
European Union were thrown into chaos, because the High Court ruled that is was not the government
but the parliament that should start the Brexit process.

After that, the government confirmed it would appeal by taking the case to the highest court in Great
Britain, the Supreme Court. However, an official government spokesman expressed disappointment by
stating that: "The country voted to leave the European Union in a referendum approved by an Act of
Parliament. And the government is determined to respect the result of the referendum". (Xinhua,2016)

V – Trade with other members of the European Union

The trade between Britain and other EU member States depends on the relationship of the country
with the EU after the exit. In the most situations, the models-regulatory discrepancy that appends to
the price of the exchange is most likely to swell with time, negatively damaging the mutual the
exchange volumes and dispositions the UK in European series supply. Post-Brexit results would mean
reduction of trade or rise in the cost of exchange between UK and Europe thus, damaging both sides.
The EU partnership with UK is of a vital means in terms of trade and vice versa.

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 (Source: Wallgren, 2016)

The article is " How will Brexit affect Britain's trade with Europe?”, which was released on "The
Guardian", one of the famous British newspaper and information website, on the 26 th of June 2016.
The UK exports to European-Union countries represents around 40% of its products, and the post-
Brexit can affect trade with the other 27 countries. The key concerns that can impact British
businesses are direct investments, industrial and trade policies and financial services. Britain after its
withdraw from the European Union should find a new trade agreement within the next two years. The
negotiations for this new agreement target the exportation and importation of goods such as cars or
food and services trade. These discussions will also consider custom procedures and safety standards
of products. Moreover, tariffs and quotas can be imposed on both sides of the channel and make
companies struggling. The negotiations will take place with Brussels, the representing of the European
Union, in order to find one single agreement for the 27 countries. (Milmo, 2016)

The article is " UK Trade Agreements after Brexit: How to address tariffs and regulatory trade
barriers”, which was released on "The Huffington Post", one of the most famous information website,
on the 5th of September 2016.
The discussion illustrates the impact and consequences the Brexit possess on the British businesses,
the market and the benefit involve would be very harsh and transferred across other channels. Both
the steps taken to withdraw and its result, in terms of the established relationship between the two,
would become vague, multiplying the cost to United Kingdom. International guidance can chip in,
assist businesses know the risks involved with the Brexit, and the issues identified here can influence
their businesses. (Lester, 2016)

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VI – Immigration

In UK, the immigration is seen as a burdened political problem reason being the fee and settlement
are not equally circulated and has insight have been detached from truth, moderately due to unfriendly
media exposure.
The extent to which the immigration is stiffened depends largely on the Brexit form, which jeopardizes
contest in London and becoming economically costly. Trades done elsewhere within the Europe
country can operate around any limit on the autonomous progress obligated by the UK. However,
some countries and states may experience changes in labour, contribute and allowance flow. Perhaps
if the UK gets strict over it border controls, the biggest risk will be hard to predict and may result to that
of political contagion (Zwart, 2016).

This article “Theresa May vows Brexit deal will limit migration whatever the impact on EU trade” was
written on 31st of August 2016 by Steven Swinford, a political journalist at a British newspaper “The
Telegraph”.

UKBA (United Kingdom Border Agency) has decided to control the immigration after the vote of Brexit,
said Theresa May the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She added that it was not negotiable
even if the European leaders are against this decision. In fact, they think that Britain should accept the
free movements of the EU emigrants. However, the prime minister Theresa May leaves the choice to
the countries member of the European Union: whether they accept the control of immigration as a
price of freely trading. This shows the difference of the approach between Britain and Norway, which
retain access to the single market in exchange of free movement of the EU migrants. ( Swinford,
2016)

A research has shown that more than 3 millions of migrants live in Great Britain, which leads Theresa
May to introduce a plan of « work permits », in order to limit the low-skilled workers that come to the
United Kingdom.

Furthermore, the prime minister also announced that the government would decide when to trigger the
Article 50, and that they will establish the terms of Brexit without consulting Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland. (Swinford, 2016)

A Downing Street spokesman said: “Ministers agreed that we should be seizing the opportunity of
Brexit to confirm the UK’s place as one of the great trading nations in the world, fostering
entrepreneurialism and setting out a long-term vision for the country. They also agreed on the vital
need to increase productivity and the importance of doing more to foster economic growth and
industrial development in regions up and down the country.” (The Telegraph, 2016)

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The article was released from RT News on the 6 th of September 2016, written by Richard Sudan, a
political activist. The EU referendum slowly sparked an “anti-foreigner” sentiment in the United
Kingdom which were characterized by racist violence and hate speech. The post-Brexit xenophobic
conditions were tragic to the Polish community when a Polish national was severally beaten, injured
and eventually killed by a group of British youths (Sudan, 2016). In the UK, the immigrants comprise a
very strong workforce, however, the EU referendum which was a national poll of immigration greatly
affected their status quo. Sadly, during that period, no political governance was fighting for the rights of
the immigrants especially since they form part of the labor force in the UK. This proved that the mass
deportations brought about by evoking Article 50 was outrightly wrong.

In conclusion, the immigrant communities especially the Polish community were scapegoated after the
Brexit. The scrapping of the Human Rights Act by Theresa May and Article 50 were the most
important issues that the UK faced during the EU referendum period (Sudan, 2016). After the Brexit,
Britain was left at a dangerous position especially after the death of various immigrants that was

directly linked to the post-Brexit process.

(Source: RTNews, 2016)

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Six weeks after the referendum, racism has risen in the United Kingdom, especially in London were
44% of incidents were reported. Most of these incidents were verbal (76%) and target Eastern
Europeans (Polish) and Muslims. Perpetrators use racist slogan that can hurt such as “Go home” or
“F**** Off British Muslim”. These criminals agree with the ideology of “Britain First” party that aims to
“take their country back”. (Source: RTNews, 2016)

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VII – References

Aljazeera. (2016). UK's Brexit cannot pass without parliament approval. Available:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/uk-brexit-pass-parliament-approval-161103101737902.html.
Last accessed 20th Nov 2016.

Garton Timothy Ash. (2016). Soft or hard Brexit? The EU, not Britain, has the whip hand. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/24/soft-hard-brexit-eu-britain-uk. Last accessed
27th Nov 2016.

Gregor Irwin. (2015). BREXIT: the impact on the UK and the EU. Available: https://www.global-
counsel.co.uk/sites/default/files/special-reports/downloads/Global%20Counsel_Impact_of_Brexit.pdf.
Last accessed 2nd Nov 2016.

Helm Toby. (2016). Why Europe will drive a hard Brexit. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/nov/19/brexit-eu-theresa-may-angela-merkel. Last
accessed 27th Nov 2016.

Lester Simon. (2016). UK Trade Agreements after Brexit: How To Address Tariffs and Regulatory
Trade Barriers. Available: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-lester/uk-trade-agreements-
after_b_11862762.html. Last accessed 22nd Nov 2016.

Milmo Dan. (2016). How will Brexit affect Britain's trade with Europe ?. Available:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/26/how-will-brexit-affect-britains-trade-with-europe.
Last accessed 22nd Nov 2016.

O'Loughlin Niall . (2016). -. Available: https://twitter.com/nialloloughlin. Last accessed 15th Nov 2016.

PATRICK MINFORD & J. R. SHACKLETON. (2016). BRITAIN and EUROPE’S dysfunctional

Phipps Claire. (2016). EU referendum morning briefing: the result. Available:

Shirley Beglinger. (2016). The Quiet Insurer Mobility Of The ‘Other’ Financial Service. Available:
http://www.zyen.com/Publications/The%20Quiet%20Insurer%20Mobility%20of%20the%20Other
%20Financial%20Service%20-%20Report%20Final%20.pdf. Last accessed 2nd Nov 2016.

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Sudan Richard. (2016). Post Brexit Britain: Rising xenophobia challenges status quo. Available:
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/358389-uk-hate-crimes-brexit/. Last accessed 20th Nov 2016.

Swinford Steven. (2016). Theresa May vows Brexit deal will limit migration whatever the impact on EU
trade. Available: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/08/31/theresa-may-vows-to-make-controls-on-
eu-migrants-a-red-line-duri/. Last accessed 22nd Nov 2016.

Wallgren Pär. (2016). -. Available: https://www.instagram.com/cartoons_by_wallgren/. Last accessed

Xinhua. (2016). May's Brexit plans thrown into chaos by landmark court ruling. Available:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2016-11/04/content_27271749.htm. Last accessed 7th Nov 2016.

Zwart S. (2016). The Economic Consequences of Brexit: A Taxing Decision. Available:

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