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The United Kingdom, which exchange market and is by far the ing habits were “strongly associated”
has been a member of the European Union (EU) for almost half a century, has al-
ways had a peculiar relationship with the bloc. Separated from its neighbors by the English Channel, this island nation has never really thought itself a true part of Europe, an idea demon- strated by the fact that the British call the rest of Europe “the Continent,” irrespective of the reality that the British Isles form a part of the same geographical region. As a result, Brit- ish EU membership was always some- thing of a half-in, half-out affair. While many others in the EU joined the euro single currency, the UK kept its pound. While 26 member states joined togeth- er in the Schengen borderless area, the UK opted out, and indeed, it also opted out of several other directives concern- ing freedom, security, and justice. De- spite this uneasy marriage, few could have predicted that in June 2016, the UK would opt out of the EU entirely.
Indeed, EU membership has brought great benefits to the United Kingdom. The City of London dominates the US$5.3-trillion-a-day global foreign
In a recent poll, 49 per- cent of British respon- dents said that they be- lieved globalization had “pushed wages lower for British workers,” with 51 percent saying it had led to “more inequality be- tween rich and poor.”
most important financial center in the European Union, taking advantage of so-called passporting rights to admin- ister hedge funds and other financial vehicles throughout Europe. British students, meanwhile, have been able to take advantage of EU-run initia- tives such as Erasmus, an exchange program established in 1987 that en- ables undergraduates to study in an- other European country with the guar- antee that the period spent abroad is recognized by their university when they come back. Another benefit to membership in the European Union is that retired British citizens can live anywhere in Europe, as long as they register in the country where they live, and remain eligible for their UK pensions, a boon to the multitudes of British pensioners who would prefer to live out their days on the coasts of Spain, Cyprus, or the south of France.
A TALE OF TWO BRITAINS
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beacons- field and twice British prime minister, referred to Great Britain in his novel Sybil as “Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympa- thy; who are as ignorant of each oth- er’s habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones, or inhabitants of different planets.” This sentiment, from the mid-1800s, is key to understanding Brexit. Dis- raeli continued that the two Britains were “formed by a different breeding, are fed by a different food, are ordered by different manners, and are not gov- erned by the same laws: the rich and the poor.”
This divide was arguably never in sharper focus than during the British referendum on EU membership, when a slim majority of the country’s elec- torate rejected the EU for a leap into the unknown. A closer look at the de- mographic distribution of “Leave” and “Remain” votes shows that this was a referendum that ran along lines of class, wealth, and education: in the main, it was those in economically de- pressed areas who voted “Leave,” with analysis by the BBC showing that vot-
with level of formal education.
For many people, a vote against the EU was a vote of protest against their poor economic prospects in an inter- nationally integrated society. Living in areas where traditional employment disappeared 20 to 30 years ago, never to return, and facing competition for lower-skilled jobs from foreign labor, they have seen far fewer obvious bene- fits of globalization than their peers in
wealthy, cosmopolitan cities.
TOO MUCH CHANGE, TOO FAST
Speaking in December 2016 at De- Pauw University in the United States in his first major speech since resign- ing in June 2016, former British Prime Minister David Cameron pointed out that globalization had brought many people in many countries out of pov- erty. “But let’s be clear,” he went on to say, “the rising tide has not lifted all boats. There are many people in our own countries who feel, rightly, economically left behind through glo- balization.” He added that a cultural phenomenon also played an important role in driving some voters to choose to leave the EU—the fast pace of change was leading some to feel that the coun- try “they are living in is not the coun- try they were born into.”
These issues are not exclusive to the United Kingdom. Across the Atlantic Ocean, a similar narrative played out in November 2016, as traditionally blue-collar Democratic bastions voted for the Republican presidential nomi- nee, Donald Trump. Trump’s victory is attributed in large part to his appeals to those communities, which believed that they had been abandoned by an economic system that had left them without hope and without opportunity.
For decades, investment into the working-class communities of Western nations has been falling as their jobs were replaced either by automation or by cheaper manufacturing hubs else- where. Living standards have declined, and inequality has risen. The resulting disaffection meant that a new political message that blamed those problems on external forces became extremely
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