Why did the British people vote for Brexit?

For those of you that aren't British, and indeed some of you who are, it may be difficult to understand why a majority of British people chose to leave to EU. It would be impossible to create a full list of the reasons why people voted out, but it can be broken down into the two most important issues voters cited when questioned on the day of the vote, British sovereignty (32%) and immigration (48%). There is also the idea that the campaign dedicated to keeping the UK in the EU (Remain) did not do enough to sway public opinion against the movement for Brexit (Leave).

Brits make no secret, and are sometimes proud, of their self-imposed distinction from the continent. The British often speak of “Europeans” like they themselves are not European, that the channel somehow makes their fair isles a continent of their own. This distinction is not just a linguistic quirk, but a political one as well. Eurobarometer data shows that the British don't consider themselves very European, having always come among the countries least likely to say they are attached when answering "How attached you feel to Europe?" (The UK came 4th from bottom in both Autumn 2014 and Autumn 2015.) Why?

It is difficult to say, maybe that thin strip of sea called the Channel really does make all the difference, geographically speaking? Maybe this ideology is left over from the Empire, where Britain ruled over an area greater than Africa? Who is to say, but the fact is that the British do not consider themselves European.

One of these may be the reason why Brits do not like the imposition of laws from Brussels. The British people have a long history of the ideas of liberty and sovereignty, dating back to the Magna Carta but coming to a head during the English Civil War, and the perception that the UK is not in control of its laws is seen as a great affront by some. That those EU laws have only the ultimate authority in areas that all its nations have agreed to, was perhaps not talked about by the Remain campaign.

There is also the idea that the EU is run by bureaucrats that cannot be elected and, despite having total control on UK law, never pass any laws. Although they are not elected, the EU Commission can be dissolved at any time by the EU Parliament. And it is true that every nation in the EU has a veto, which they use to ensure they are not getting the short end of the stick. That they sometimes use it for more selfish reasons is true; however, no one is saying the EU is perfect.

The most significant reason voters said was the influx of immigrants. Although immigration has been occurring in the UK on a large scale since the beginning of the post-war period, the amount has increased significantly since the end of the 1990s. There was a prevalent idea that immigrants were coming over to the UK just to use the NHS and the school systems. This was enough of an issue for David Cameron, the previous Prime Minister, to renegotiate the terms of UK membership to the EU in 2015-16, putting in place a four-year wait until EU immigrants could use such systems.

It is also worth noting that The Economist noticed that Leave voters were the majority in 94 % of places that saw over a 200 % increase in foreign-born population between 2001 and 2014, i.e. that people were more in favour of Leave when the increase in immigration was more noticeable. This, coupled with the refugee crisis that many people saw as a "hoard of refugees that are coming to our homeland that the EU is mandating we accept". This last point was, expectedly, exaggerated by the right-wing media to become a point of fear for the average person, as the UK accepted very few refugees when compared to say Hungary or Sweden. It is also possible that some people believed that leaving the EU would reduce the number of immigrants from non-EU countries, something which would not occur.

So, why was the Remain campaign so weak? Maybe the mentality was that people would choose the evil they know rather than the evil they don't, that the Leave argument was so weak that they didn't need to do anything. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn only appeared to give lip service to Remain. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.