What post-Brexit UK means for us

At long last, Britain ended official relations with the European Union (EU) when Her Britannic Majesty’s Government formally withdrew from the Union at 11p.m. on Friday, January 31, 2020.

This came after nearly half-a-century of membership in the 28-nation Union across the English Channel that began with Britain’s entry in 1973 into the-then European Economic Community (EEC). In due course, the EEC – created by the Treaty of Rome in 1957 – was renamed the European Community (EC), and incorporated into the EU on the latter’s formation in 1993 by six founder-nations.

With one thing leading to another, all the EC’s institutions had been absorbed into the EU’s wider framework by 2009 – and the EC then ceased to exist. Forming a virtual ‘United States of Europe’ (1946: Sir Winston Churchill pardon), the EU membership had grown to 28 nations. Then, on June 23, 2016, Britain voted by a very narrow margin of 51.9 percent in a ‘Brexit’ (‘British Exit’) referendum to withdraw from the EU – subsequently becoming the first and only member to (successfully?) do so last Friday.

Implications of Britain’s withdrawal from the EU are yet to be determined with any degree of certitude. Britain’s EEC entry 47 years ago was marked with much triumphalism and fanfare, with the government minting a new 50p coin featuring nine interlocking hands to reflect the newly-expanded EU membership.

However, ‘Brexit-2020’ comes with much anxiety and Britain’s uncertain future outside the Union after the historic end to almost half-a-century of membership.

For starters, Britain has a lot of negotiating to do with the EU on future relations so as to ensure that its exit from the Union doesn’t go awry any which way. The foregoing is also true for Britain’s development partners, including Tanzania, whose historic and historical relations with Britain also depend to a large extent on Britain’s fate and welfare.