Three years on and we have seen two Prime Ministers hand in their resignation, politicians revolting and a country ever more divided yet the prospects of a Brexit seem to be in a distant future.

So the question is why Brexit is such a mess?

The simple answer is no one was prepared for it and the decision of a former Prime Minister set the future of this nation into uncharted waters.

For many centuries, the division of Europe resulted in countless wars but the devastation of the Second World War forced the European elites to consider cooperation thus beginning the evolution of the European Union as we see today.

Therefore, the idea of a member state leaving was not included until the Lisbon Treaty of 2009 after attempts made by the European body to overcome their criticisms of being more democratic and transparent.

To summarise, if a member state evokes Article 50, they need to reach a mutual agreement with the rest of the member states to leave the union. The European Union took decades to make so leaving it will not be a straightforward task.

Hence why did Britain became the first member state to evoke Article 50? For some time many people were unhappy with the laws that were enforced by Brussels, where the major European Union headquarters are situated.

The two major concerns are migration and fishing rights. Under European Union law, member states’ citizens are allowed to travel, work, study and live throughout the Union and the European Union set quotas on how much each state are allowed to fish in each other’s fishing territory.

Therefore, right-wing parties like the UKIP and Britain First sought to use these issues as a platform to gain power to retake control over British borders.

The Conservative Party won their first general election in 13 years in 2010 but not a majority so the Prime Minister at the time, David Cameron, promised a referendum on whether to stay or exit the European Union if he won the 2015 elections. The Conservative Party won the majority and David Cameron set a referendum date on June 23rd, 2016.

As a result, Britain voted by 52% to leave the Union but there were clear divisions between the nation states and major cities. Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to stay while England and Wales had a majority vote for Brexit but the capital city, London, voted overwhelmingly to stay but cities like Liverpool and Leeds voted to stay by slim margins.

Nonetheless, David Cameron stepped down as leader and left the country in shambles.

The Home Secretary, who voted to remain, Theresa May succeed David Cameron as Prime Minister but failed to reach a deal that satisfied a divided country therefore, she handed her resignation on 7th June 2019.

After 6 years since David Cameron announced a referendum and 3 years since the actual vote, we are not any closer to leaving the European Union.

Will October 31st be the final decision or will we waste money in this shambolic situation.

Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash

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