The UK will officially leave the European Union at 23:00 GMT, ending 47 years of membership. In a video message to be released an hour earlier, Prime Minister Boris Johnson – who led the 2016 campaign to leave – will call Brexit a “new dawn”. Pro and anti-Brexit demonstrations and marches are being held across the country, as the UK flag is taken down from EU institutions in Brussels. Little will change immediately, as the UK begins a “transition period”. Most EU laws will continue to be in force – including the free movement of people – until the end of December, by which time the UK aims to have reached a permanent free trade agreement with the EU.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the country had to “move on” after Brexit and needed to “make sure we maintain good relations” with the EU and not “fall into the arms of a free trade deal with the United States”. Former Prime Minister David Cameron, who led the campaign to remain in the EU during the referendum, said he believed the UK could “make a success of the choice that we made” and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage tweeted: “At last the day comes when we break free. A massive victory for the people against the establishment.”
View from the Left:
A new era has begun for the UK. As the outgoing governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, noted this week, Britain has entered a decade of potentially profound structural change. Those who mourn Britain’s departure from the EU are sure this fundamental change is going to be painful and detrimental. But there are those who see Brexit as an opportunity not a threat.
View from the right:
Boris Johnson will hail “the dawn of a new era” for Britain as he celebrates Brexit day with a tax cut for 31 million people. The Prime Minister will urge the country to look forward, not back, saying “this is not an end, but a beginning… a moment of real national renewal and change”.
To give workers the feeling of an immediate Brexit bounce, Mr Johnson approved an increase in the threshold at which workers start paying National Insurance from £8,628 to £9,500, resulting in a tax cut of £104 for a typical employee starting in April.
Article submitted, WayOutWest.