- An uncertain future for the UK outside the EU
The United Kingdom has left the European Union at last, after having joined it in 1973, and voting to leave it in 2016, after a contentious referendum whose result split the country. The referendum’s 52-48 result showed that the British people were as divided about leaving as they had been about joining. One consequence of this narrow result that that some areas had actually favoured remaining. One such area was Scotland, and it was perhaps inevitable that the Scottish Assembly voted to have another referendum on whether to remain or not, after the 2014 referendum when Scotland voted to remain. However, the calculus of the Scottish Nationalist Party is that there will be support for independence, and a decision to join the EU. Scotland is not the only problem for the UK; there is also the vexed question of Ireland. Eire is an EU member, but Northern Ireland is not. Northern Ireland has to maintain contact with Eire under the Good Friday agreement. There was a last-minute agreement, but only now will it be put to the test. There is the danger of the UK flying apart, something which those who campaigned to leave thought would happen if the UK stayed in the EU.
The UK’s departure may give it some peace. It not only went through the referendum, but also two prime ministerial resignations and two elections, with only the last enabling a departure with an agreement. The agreement is only to seek an agreement; the UK now has to seek trade agreements with the EU itself, as well as those countries with which it has a trade agreement by virtue of being an EU member.
Pakistan is one of those countries. However, while it will revive its old relationship with the UK as a former colony, it must not let slide its relations with the EU. It also has to take into account the Pakistani diaspora in the UK, which is both old and numerous, as well as the less numerous and newer one which has developed in the EU. It should be noted that the European Parliament has taken a more proactive stance on the Indian lockdown of Kashmir, as well as its Citizenship Amendment Act, than UK’s Parliament. Borders may have changed, but interests remain.
