The U.K. just voted to
leave the E.U. Here's what that means
After
months of campaigning, the "Leave" camp has won and Britain will be
leaving the E.U. The Post's Adam Taylor talks about what that means for the
country and Europe. (Adam Taylor,Jason Aldag/The Washington Post)
The whole world is
reeling after a milestone referendum in Britain to leave the European Union.
And although leaders of the campaign to exit
Europe are crowing over their victory, it seems many Britons may
not even know what they had actually voted for.
Awakening to a stock market
plunge and a precipitous decline in the value of the pound that Britain hasn't
seen in more
than 30 years, voters now face a series of economic shocks that analysts
say will only worsen before they improve. The consequences of the leave vote
will be felt worldwide, even here
in the United States, and some British voters say they now regret casting a
ballot in favor of Brexit.
"Even though I voted
to leave, this morning I woke up and I just — the reality did
actually hit me," one woman told
the news channel ITV News. "If I'd had the opportunity to vote again,
it would be to stay."
That confusion over what Brexit might mean for the country's economy appears to have been reflected across the United Kingdom on Thursday. Google reported sharp upticks in searches not only related to the ballot measure but also about basic questions concerning the implications of the vote. At about 1 a.m. Eastern time, about eight hours after the polls closed, Google reported that searches for "what happens if we leave the EU" had more than tripled.
(Google
Trends)
(Google Trends)
The run-up to the vote was
marked by a bitterly divided campaign, one that was as much about immigration
fears as it was about the global economy. But despite the all-out
attempts by either side to court voters, Britons were not
only mystified by what would happen if they left the E.U.— many seemed not
to even know what the European Union is.
What is the E.U.? To be
fair, that question will now take on a much deeper significance than perhaps
Google's users realized when they typed that into their browsers.
Source: washingtonpost
