Foreign opinion and Brexit How it could save the day Britain surprised the world when it voted to leave during the EU referendum on the 23 of July. A year on, negotiations have finally started; after a failed attempt from the conservatives led by PM Theresa May to form a Majority government.
You probably already know all of this if you’re reading this article, there is no need to repeat it. It has more or less been inevitable for a British citizen to ignore the constant coverage by the British media. But what does Brexit mean for a non-British citizen, for example someone like me. And what should the British government be doing to get the best deal possible. In my opinion, the fact that Britain has underestimated the foreign opinion on its own image and Brexit has led to its slow but steady downfall.
In this Article, I’ll try to explain specifically what the British government has been underestimating and how it could have used this foreign opinion to its advantage.
But before we cover the subjects mentioned above, we need to understand how the general foreign opinion was before Brexit in the EU. Generally, it has all to do with the “image” that Britain had. By image I mean the speculative power that a country has.
Before Brexit, public opinion on the image of Britain was very positive, thus the Pound was doing well. Britain had maintained its positive image as a powerful country, created from the beginning of the end of WWII (and other factors which won’t get into), by actively participating with foreign countries and maintaining an as stable as possible government, therefore favouring a strong economy.
Brexit defies all of this, turning everything upside down, creating a period of major uncertainty for the first time in modern history. This does not mean that Britain shouldn’t have voted to leave the EU, there is no point in discussing whether it was a good or bad decision: it’s a decision that has already been made and therefore there is no turning back no matter what you think.
The above paragraph describes one of the major problems that the British people and government have: they believe that Brexit is reversible. Consequentially they don’t believe in Brexit. Saying something but believing in the opposite makes you look weak. What’s more is that the British government is more likely to settle for a similar deal to what it already had, because although 52% of the population voted leave, the government in power wanted, and still wants to remain.
Another problem is that Britain has forgotten it’s place in the world, it was once one of the most powerful and richest countries. And I don’t mean during Colonialism and Imperialism, I mean from around the 1960’s onward before power houses like China and India started to adopt a more capitalist economy. And even if Britain wasn’t really one of the richest and most powerful countries during that period, I can assure you that when a foreigner thinks of Britain they only imagine central London and Edinburgh, the richest cities on Earth. Britain should have used this “title” and image as one of the most powerful countries to prove that it could cope on its own, making it look as if the European countries were missing out big time, pushing them to make a more favourable Brexit agreement. Unfortunately, it is too late as the French and German head of states have finally realised how weak Britain actually is.
So what can Britain do to get the best out of Brexit?
To answer this question, we have to consider Britain’s position in the negotiations. Britain is the one who chose to leave the EU, making it the one who is proposing the alternatives to the contracts that define its current membership. This means that although it is abandoning EU laws it still has to replace them with an alternative. The negotiations that are currently being held are to replace the laws that define the relationships between Britain and the EU. In an Ideal world, these relationships should be redefined State by State and not as one whole big deal. Unfortunately, because time isn’t on their side Britain has to negotiate as quick as possible meaning that the only option is to redefine the contacts as a whole. Hopefully when the negotiations are finished Britain will try to renegotiate the contracts one by one with every EU country so that they can try to create an upper hand in the market. Furthermore, Britain should try to avoid getting into conflict with France and Germany as they are currently and will probably always be the EU’s most influential countries.
In my opinion, the EU is not the way forward for Britain after Brexit, it would be a miracle if they get a better deal than they already had little more than a year ago. For me the way forward is making strong pacts with countries in close proximity to the EU but not actually in the union. For example, Switzerland. Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, it has a currency so strong and secure that Swiss banks had to buy euros in order to keep its price down. Countries like Switzerland demonstrate how a non-EU country located in the centre of Europe does not depend need to depend on the EU to be economically strong. Additionally it shows how the successful usage of a country’s image/brand will increase its economic status.
Another alternative would be to seek investments from emerging countries like China and India. These countries are always looking for investments and are always spending stupid amounts of money. China is starting to fill the gap that Trumps America has created and may soon be the world’s biggest economy. What Britain should know is that the Chinese have a very positive opinion on the western world, especially the Brits. In fact, a lot of the Chinese believe that Britain is the key to entering the western market, which explains the enormous investments they have made into London property market. Awkwardly, the British government hasn’t caught on to this and is hence missing out on a lot of extra money.
I think we can conclude by saying that British government has a lot to learn about foreign opinion, and how to manipulate it to their advantage and they should also be less attached to the EU and seek better alternatives for a better Brexit.
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