Pelevins blog

Today in the UK there is a referendum that will determine an important factor for the future of the country - whether it will remain in the European Union.

A heated debate on this issue has been going on for a long time. The intensity of passions of recent times has even led to murder. The mentally unstable 52-year-old supporter of the country's exit from the EU, Thomas Mair, killed 41-year-old parliamentarian, supporter of Europe and mother of two children, Jo Cox. He did this by shouting: "The main thing is Britain!"

The withdrawal campaign was led primarily by the UK Independence Party. They won 13% in the last election. Half of the Conservative MPs are also in favor of leaving, including five cabinet ministers and several Labor MPs. One of the ardent and outspoken opponents of the kingdom's membership in the EU is a slightly outrageous, but popular former mayor of London, Boris Johnson. The big proponents of leaving the EU, and perhaps most notably, are British fishermen who see their businesses as being hit hard by EU membership. Many have seen their ships and boats floating down the Thames for the past month with anti-EU placards.

Supporters of leaving the EU insist that membership in the union is too expensive (about 13 billion pounds a year, that is, 200 pounds per person) and creates nothing but problems. They refer to such problems as a large flow of migrants, who, thanks to one of the main rules of the EU - freedom of movement, come to the United Kingdom in large numbers. Supporters advocate returning Britain to its own borders. They also insist that European rules harm British small and medium-sized businesses.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, sixteen members of the cabinet of ministers and, in general, most of the Laborites are in favor of remaining in the EU. A significant part of big business and the financial sector are also in favor of EU membership, in particular because it is beneficial for London's financial center to remain the main financial center of Europe.

Interestingly, while opponents of the EU insist that leaving the European Union will give Britain economic growth, EU supporters say exactly the opposite - leaving the EU means recession and economic decline for the country.