In this essay I’ll handle British class system how I understood it and scratch of Brexit.

The UK is an independent country consisting of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They are a county that tend to build everything on traditions, like drinking tea, their constant politeness, and the class system. As well as traditions, the British history is an important part of the British society. Throughout the years the UK has been a powerful country, at one point they even where an empire. In 2016 they had a referendum on whether they should remain or leave EU. 51.9% voted that they should leave the EU. In order to understand why they want to leave EU; we have to look at their history. Because the British history have an impact on what people voted on the referendum.

The reason that UK want to leave EU is mainly that they then get control over the British borders. This means not as many immigrants are able to move to the UK. As we saw in the movie “This is England” the skinheads thought that the immigrants took away jobs from the Brits. With this in consideration, this could be one of the reasons why the UK wants to have control over their borders. To support that statement statistics from BBC shows that younger voters mainly voted to remain in the EU, while 60% of the age group 60+ voted to leave and over 55% of the age group 45-65 also voted leave. The movie “This is England” takes place in the beginning of the 1980`s that means that most people who lived at this time voted for leaving EU. Furthermore, UK`s history as an empire and the fact that UK have never looked at themselves as a part of Europe could also impact what people voted on the referendum. (BBC 2021)

The skinheads where a part of the working class in the UK. The class system has been a part of British society for a long time. In the past it has mainly been three classes and it was easier to categorize which class someone would belong to. Firstly, the underclass consisting of factory workers. Secondly the middleclass, also called the working class. And third the upper class, consisting of lawyers, doctors, dukes, and duchess. Today it exists several classes and its harder to see different between the classes, and to categorize people into different classes. Someone would even say that the class system is about to die out in the UK. On the other hand, the class system is a part of the British traditions. And according to the telegraph the UK is one of the most traditional countries in the world. “Britain is one of the most traditional countries in the world, beaten only by Russia and China, research suggests” (Perry, K 2014)

 So, it could be hard to imagine it just diapering, as they have built everything on their traditions.

UK and EU have made a deal. If UK would leave EU without a deal, they will lose their access on the single marked. That means that some products that they buy from other countries are getting more expensive, and they must make over 300 new trading deals. Also, several poor cities in the UK got money from EU back in the day. If UK would leave EU without any deal, they lose that money. With this in mind, it will be harder to live in the UK if you are poor or live in a poor city.

In conclusion we see that the theses statement was correct. We see that people who lived during the Falklands war and Margaret Thatcher who served as prime minister most likely voted for leaving the EU. Both the Falklands war and the period when Margaret Thatcher served as prime minister was in the 1980`s. We can also conclude that the underclass has a harder time now when UK left from EU. Why I took this topic was, because I have wondered that would it be better for us in Finland also leave from EU.

What do you think?

Kasperi Pitkänen

Entrepreneurship & Team leadership

Proakatemia, 2023

References:

BBC. 2021. EU referendum: The result in maps and charts. BBC news.

Wrigley, C. 2009. A Companion to Early Twentieth-century Britain. Chichester, U.K. Wiley-Blackwell, Pg 346.

Perry,K. 2014. Britain ‘one of the most traditional countries in the world’, research suggests. The telegraph.