Brexit Explained

On June 23rd, 2016, an entire country headed into the unknown when 17.4 million people in the United Kingdom voted to become the first country to leave the European Union. This is the story of Brexit.

Subscribe to TDC:

Video by Bryce Plank and Robin West

Music:
"Consequence" by Matt Stewart-Evans:

Epic drone shots of London:

Script:
On June 23rd, 2016, an entire country headed into the unknown. That’s the day 17.4 million people in the United Kingdom voted to become the first country to leave the European Union.

This is the story of Brexit.

We begin 60 years ago. After World Wars I and II had brought unprecedented death and destruction to the continent, a simple theory gained traction: if countries form stronger economic ties, they’ll be much less likely to fight each other.

So, in 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and formed the European Economic Community.

The UK wasn’t included. It tried to join in 1963 and ‘67, but was blocked by French President Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle didn’t trust the British and their close allies, the United States, although de Gaulle’s official reason was that the UK’s economy wasn’t compatible with Europe’s.

A few years later, once de Gaulle was out of power, the UK became a member of the EEC in 1973.

But not everyone was sold on the idea. So, just two years after joining, the UK held its first ever national referendum to decide whether it should turn around and leave. The vote wasn’t close, 67% of the electorate chose to stay.

In the years since, the EEC has become known as the European Union, expanded to 28 member states, and enacted countless laws and reforms that have created a thriving political and economic zone with 500 million citizens.

In many ways it was designed to mirror the world’s most successful federal republic: the United States. Just like the American colonies had done two centuries earlier, the individual countries of Europe decided they’d be better off - economically, geopolitically - if they formed a unified group. It was a good decision.

For proof, look no further than the year-by-year, per-person GDP rate, which has skyrocketed across the entire euro-zone. Germany, the UK, and France, the EU’s biggest economies and the 4th, 5th, and 6th largest individual economies in the world, have seen their growth track right along with each other at roughly the rate of the United States. A look at the emerging economies of Brazil, China, and South Africa gives you a better sense of just how closely the Europeans have tracked together. Look at Turkey — who wants desperately to join the union — compared to Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain the four EU countries most affected by the global downturn at the end of the previous decade, and you see more evidence of the power of the EU in driving growth.

As it has became more and more integrated — as its members chose to give up more and more of their sovereignty — the UK kept negotiating ways to stay independent from key aspects of the union. It didn’t join the open border that the rest of the EU created in 1995 to create completely free movement within the union, and it chose to keep the British pound as its currency instead of adopting the Euro.

But the development that made the UK’s eventual exit most likely was the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty in 2009. Not only did it make the EU’s central institutions more efficient and more powerful, but — for the first time — it gave its members an official mechanism to leave, called Article 50.

At around the same time, the world was hit by a severe recession. Greece, whose public debt was far higher than most other EU members, was worse off. Its fellow union members forced it to implement severe spending cutbacks in exchange for money it needed to stabilize its economy.

This was followed by a migrant crisis, as millions of refugees fled war-torn countries across the Middle East and North Africa.

As immigration rates rose across Europe, the preferred destination was one of the big three economies: Germany, the UK, or France...

[houstonguy]

To fellow Americans watching this video, things can be best summed up like this: People in favor of Brexit are Trump supporters.

[TheDailyConversation]

On June 23rd, 2016, an entire country headed into the unknown when 17.4 million people in the United Kingdom voted to become the first member to leave the European Union. This is the story of Brexit.

[mistermood]

this is why you should have voted for lord buckethead, .

[rendjo]

**Article 13 joins the server**
**UK leaves the server**

[liahrene]

Thank you for helping to make a complex issue easier to understand. Well done 👍

[sadikik]

A lone wolf dies, but the pack survives - GOT

[canna]

UK has democratically decided to leave. Go and do not ask for any special bargain. Bear the consequences and get on with it.

[NotQuiteFirst]

Couldn't be more biased if you tried. The funniest part was 9:35 when you said that opinion polls were "consistently showing" that the result *would* be reversed if the referendum were held again, while highlighting only five out of fifteen polls! Each only had a 1 percentage point lead, and 11% undecided, each only of a sample of about two thousand people. Dismal analysis.

[JBinero]

Article 50 is pretty clear that a withdrawal cannot be revoked unilaterally. It unambiguously says that after the notification, the notifying member state will leave after two years unless all member states agree otherwise.

Just because the author says it's revocable doesn't mean it is. The UK tried to pull this stunt before in Hong Kong. The Treaty unambiguously said Honk Kong would be returned to China while the author of the Treaty claimed it was merely a figure of speech. Hong Kong returned to China.

[StYxXx]

1. Why the referendum was held at all wasn't mentioned. Cameron promised it to get right wing politicians on his side (or in short: to gain and keep power), but didn't believe it would have any consequence
2. The EU isn't hard to punish the UK or to discourage other member states from leaving. It's just a logical thing. If you want access to the common market you have to obey some rules. There cannot be exceptions that would put the UK in a better position than Norway for example (like it would be if the UK was allowed to trade withing the common market but not accept free movement) - or even a member state. Actually Merkel said that. And there are only a few issues that are a red line for the EU. For example the border between Nothern Ireland and Rep. of Ireland. And of course: if you want to act within the internal market without tariffs you cannot make your own trade deals. Otherwise the UK could circumvent EU tariffs (importing goods into EU states without the EU tariffs having any effects). Of course the UK thinks the same the other way around. Also no other country wants to leave, on the contrary.
3. Independency doesn't mean the UK can do whatever it wants. There's still the WTO and it has rules. A lot of the things UKIP promised would go against those rules. Of course the UK could also leave the WTO...
oh and 4. another important thing: The UK only joined because it was bankrupt. The political union was never wanted, just access the economic area (and so UK politicans told the EU/EC project was only about trade although they new it was more).

[jonathanwarner]

3:31 "millions of refugees fled war torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa" - then you show a boat full of mainly sub-Saharan African migrants who are not from the war torn Middle Eastern or North African countries

3:33 "As immigration rates rose across Europe, the preferred destination was one of the big three economies." Well already, since these people are cherry picking their destinations to be the most economically prosperous, this makes it clear that they are not refugees fleeing war, but opportunistic economic migrants.

3:45 "Anti immigrant, nationalist feeling." There is a difference between being anti immigration and "anti immigrant." "Anti immigrant" means just being against the migrants themselves, and while on the surface appearing to be an abbreviation, actually substantially alters the meaning, and puts those holding the views in a bad light, while failing to face the actual issues.

[giancarloconsiglio]

The U.K. had so many opt outs and exceptions that it almost didn't seem like it was an EU nation to begin with

[papillonvu]

10:41 Talk about cherry picking statistics! In your table there were 15 polls conducted and fully 8 of them still favored Brexit, by a margin of 2-4%. Yet you decided to highlight the 5 that favored staying, all of them by a narrow margin of 1-2%!
Come on man! That’s a deliberate intent to mislead!

[americanparser]

"... plunged themselves entirely into the unknown."

Really? Great Britain has been an independent union for more that 300 years, and England has been an independent country for almost a thousand. Returning to that after twenty years in the EU isn't exactly "the unknown."

You lost me ten seconds into the video.

[janoschlutscher]

Wow! This is the best explanation that I've had so far! Thanks for this video, it's amazing!

[jkgh]

I feel you missed some important factors leading to Brexit such as the rise of UKIP, a large influx of eastern European migrants to the UK during a time of austerity and a struggling social healthcare and education system. I voted against brexit but i feel the video isnt very balanced and makes it seem as though Britain voted to leave the EU because they didn't want to accept refugees from war torn countries.

[pixieanticontra]

I am a migrant. I do not have higher education but i do have over 17 years of experience in industrial environments and i have never benefited from any social program in these 17 years from any country, neither i would ever accept such thing, i would rather kill myself than live with the thought that i need help to survive. I have worked 8 years in Czech Republic and recently got a permanent position here in England. All my friends are here, all my friends work here honestly. This Brexit will only open a clear dor to migrant exploitation through visa fees, lower wages, uncertainty and unpredictability, things that will probably deter most of us to leave the UK. We are polish, czech, slovaks, romanians, bulgarians, spanish, italians, french, portuguese and from every other EU member countries. We are not all doctors or engineers, most of us work in factories and warehouses on minimum wages doing maximum amounts of effort and sacrifice to be able to afford a sustainable life, doing the best we can under the conditions we have. This Brexit is not about migrants from outside EU, not about asylum seekers or benefit seekers. This Brexit is aimed at the honest working tax paying EU citizens. For me personally, i couldn`t care less, i can find work in two seconds anywhere in this world due to my experience. The only thing i hate about this is that i finally met with my childhood friends, you know... the type of friends lasting for a lifetime that you can`t really do later in life and now iwe might consider to leave, each of us, on different paths once again. But now imagine all the polish, bulgarian, romanian and all other EU partially skilled workers leaving UK. The factory i currently work in would remain with 10-15% of the current staff and this is the thing around most if not all warehouses. Most if not all medium size production facilities relly on this flux of people, who come, work, pay taxes and will never even get pension rights for the years spent here, most of us don`t even attend one medical exam per year, most of us have no idea about benefits, human rights or any other rights than the right to break your back 8 to 12 hours a day and be happy if the employer pays in time and fairly... Well, this is the situation from my perspective as an economic migrant who has seen and worked in 4 European states and does not want to be either glued in one place or claim any other benefit than the salary he has earned fair and square. Brits also benefit from the free movement of goods and people, also benefits from comon markets, common infrastructure, common waters and so on. The 35 billion investment in the EU is an INVESTMENT IN COMMON INFRASTRUCTURE and COMMON SERVICES, in laws, in security, in culture, in education things that will benefit us all regardless of the place we come from. Streinght is only found in unity, 1 milion people will always have more than 10 people and this is the ratio for together or alone.... Yes, Britain will not die under any kind of Brexit. But now, how many of you are royalty? Because only royalty and upper class can afford this, the hardship will be felt by the british undergraduate, by the british commoner and by the legal EU economic migrants, not by politicians, not ofshores but by small and medium businesses that can`t afford relocation to the Union. All i can say is Good luck Britain and God save the Queen!

[MarkSalmon]

This video is 'tosh' - most of the people who voted for Brexit are frustrated that it is not moving fast enough and that the 'remainers' are busily trying to subvert the peoples decision via a so-called 'soft' Brexit (which is really no Brexit at all!)

Some of reasons I voted to leave the EU are:

- to halt mass migration which is swamping our public services - healthcare, council housing, education, transport, welfare - all need more investment in order to maintain standards. We have seen hundreds of thousands of people each year migrate from Eastern Europe to attach themselves to the UK welfare nipple.
- sovereignty - the EU is effectively run by the 28 EU commissioners - the EU commissioners are faceless and unelected. As a result, if you don't like a law imposed by them we have little or no ability to change the law via the democratic process. The UK opposed EU policies on something like 70 occasions and lost every time! The Lisbon Treaty was waved through in the UK without a vote.
- the huge regulatory burden imposed by the EU. Every regulation has a cost associated with it that crushes smaller competitors and increases costs for consumers. This is why the large corporates and special interests have 15, 000 lobbyists working in Brussels to influence decisions on their behalf. The EU is great for the elite and large corporates but not so good for small businesses and the ordinary working man in the UK.
- the enormous cost of membership of the EU. The UK is the second highest contributor of funds to the EU - apparently our exit will blow a £20 billion hole in their budget! The EU bureaucrats are living large on our money - 10, 000 of them are paid more than our Prime Minister and they have awarded themselves gold-plated pensions that are eye-wateringly high. This is why they are desperate to agree the exit bill before they will agree a free trade deal.
- the EU has not had their accounts properly audited since inception - this implies a high level of fraud and corruption is endemic within the institution, with billions of euros being misappropriated.
- the EU's share of world trade is declining rapidly as its economies stagnate compared to the rest of the world. It is highly desirable therefore to free ourselves up to trade with the rest of the world which is growing more rapidly. It is encouraging to see that the US, Australia and others want a free trade deal with the UK. (One professor has calculated that free world trade would drop consumer prices by at least 8% in the UK.)
- if we cannot agree a free trade deal with the EU, we simply go onto WTO rules i.e. a 3% tariff as I understand it. However, there is an 80 billion trade surplus between the UK and the EU in their favour, , so it seems to me that it would be as much in Europe's interests as ours to agree a sensible trade deal.

I could go on and on but you somehow managed to miss the mark in your video which seems to suggest that by voting Brexit we have made a mistake. I strongly feel it would be a mistake to remain in the EU which is part of the Globalist architecture which will do nothing good for the working man in the UK.

[christophercasey]

democracy should never be given up ....brexit is the right thing to do...they have there country back...it may hurt at first...but democracy was fought for...people died for it...and the almighty buck will stay....now the jobs and manufacturing can come back...with the right people in charge

[sholtoroyle]

He said thatopinion polls are "consistently showing that the result would be reversed in the future", the results show that we are still more likely to vote leave. There were 5 results showing we would remain compared to the 10 saying we would leave. Ngl but in my opinion that still shows that we are wanting to leave more than remain .