Week eight

Brexit’: Explaining Britain’s Vote on European Union Membership

Update: Britain has voted to exit the European Union. It is a historic decision sure to reshape the nation’s place in the world. For more about the fallout, The Times prepared an updated explainer of the basics. 

Britain held a referendum on Thursday on whether to leave the European Union, a process often referred to as “Brexit.”

The reasons for and against

Those who favor leaving argue that the European Union has changed enormously over the last four decades with regard to the size and the reach of its bureaucracy, diminishing British influence and sovereignty.

Those who want to stay say that a medium-size island needs to be part of a larger bloc of like-minded countries to have real influence and security in the world, and that leaving would be economically costly.

Who is arguing to stay, and who to go?

REMAIN Prime Minister David Cameron leads the “Remain” camp, and he could lose his job if his effort fails. Behind him are most of the Conservative government he leads, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish National Party, which is strongly pro-Europe.

Most independent economists and large businesses favor staying in, as do the most recent heads of Britain’s intelligence services. President Obama, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and President Xi Jinping of China also want Britain to stay in.

LEAVE The “Leave” camp is led by Michael Gove, the justice minister, and Boris Johnson, the former mayor of London. Nearly half the Conservative members of Parliament favor leaving, as do the members of the U.K. Independence Party, or UKIP, and its leader, Nigel Farage. Their main issues are sovereignty and immigration.

Abroad, the French National Front leader, Marine Le Pen, favors Brexit, as do other anti-Europe parties in Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

What impact would an exit have on Britain’s economy?

This is an essential and divisive question. The economic effect of an exitwould depend on what settlement was negotiated, especially on whether Britain would retain access to the single market for duty-free trade and financial services. But that would probably require accepting freedom of movement and labor for European Union citizens, which is one of the main complaints the “Leave” camp has about bloc membership.

Most economists favor remaining in the bloc and say an exit would cut growth, weaken the pound and hurt the City of London, Britain’s financial center. Even economists who favor an exit say growth would be affected in the short and medium terms, though they also say Britain would be better off by 2030.

In late October, the chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, said that the better-than-expected 0.5 percent growth in gross domestic product in the third quarter was evidence that the British economy was able to cope with Brexit. 

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/world/europe/britain-european-union-brexit.html

KEYWORD

1. reshape-再成形；重新塑造；改造
2. fallout-輻射性落塵，原子塵
3. referendum-公民投票
4. bureaucracy-官僚政治
5. diminishing-減少，減小，縮減
6. sovereignty-君權，統治權
7. justice-正義；公平；正當的理由；合法
8. negotiated-談判，協商，洽談
9. bloc-(為共同目的而組成的）團體；聯盟；集團
10. gross-顯著的，十足的；嚴重的；惡劣的