ELI5; I thought that the UK decided not to leave the EU. Now that they have, how does that affect the country, it’s people, and other western nations and their dealings with the UK?
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We voted to leave in June 2016 but the government of the day dithered and dilly dallied for numerous politically-related reasons.
Finally we got there last night at 2300 UTC but that was only the official exit. Now there is a “transition” till year’s end where we just shadow everything as before, remaining effectively an EEA member plus customs union in all but name. What happens then depends largely on what kind of bilateral deal, if any, we get with the EU (the Swiss and Canadian ones took years).
We are about to find out, this was just the British decision, all the negotiations with outside parties are yet to start officially.
The UK public decided to leave a few years ago, but the parliament couldn’t agree how or even if to leave, so an election was held and a large majority of MPs for leaving then voted through the approval for leaving. The UK will now be free to set up trade agreements with countries outside of the EU which should substantially increase trade, however trade agreements between the EU and the UK have yet to be finalised, without a substantial free trade agreement between the UK and EU it could seriously damage the economies of both EU countries and the UK.
Basically now? Nothings changed we are still in the European Economic Area (EEA) and have to abide by all the rules.
There’s a period where this all stays the same. It’s for around a year. Then we officially leave and aren’t governed by the EU or any of the rules.
Everyone in the EU can’t freely walk in (in essence) we can decide to stop anyone from coming in if we wanted although that won’t happen.
Although for Europe it’ll basically be the same minus a few checks maybe.
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