Brexit Vote- Should India Worry?

Both sides have a case, but the UK referendum on whether to stay in the European union can only have a side interest for India.

- Meghnad Desai

The British don’t do passion. They are phlegmatic, reserved, understated and elliptical. Yet suddenly, there is a heated debate going on as if the very existence of the country depended on the outcome of the referendum of June 23. But the way the debate has gone, as between the choice of ‘in’—remain in the European Union (EU)—and ‘out’, as in out of the EU (Brexit), one would think this was a life-and-death matter.

As it happens, the UK is a super stable kingdom celebrating joyously the 90th birthday of its monarch. This is the longest continuous polity in Europe, going back to 1066, if not earlier. While the nations of Europe went through convulsions of wars and revolutions for five centuries, breaking up and reforming with new boundaries, Great Britain has been single and united throughout. As of now, it is peaceful and prosperous. Since the Great Recession, it has had the best GDP growth rate in Europe despite having to cut budget deficits and endure austerity. The inflation rate is low.

Even so, there is turmoil. The UK joined the European Economic Community (EEC aka the Common Market) in 1973. Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan first applied in the early 1960s to join the six countries’ EEC, but the application was blocked by French president Charles De Gaulle. At that time, the Labour Party was against it. Then, in 1973, Edward Heath, another Conservative prime minister, succeeded in getting the country into the EEC, garnering the votes of Labour Party dissidents who were pro-Europe.