Last Thursday, voters in the United Kingdom passed a referendum calling for the country to withdraw from the European Union. The Brexit vote has shaken British politics to its core. The world stock markets have largely responded in kind, the value of the British pound has fallen dramatically, and the country has lost its AAA credit rating.
And the fallout continues, even as uncertainty persists over how and when the divorce will happen. London-based journalist and former BBC correspondent Claire Bolderson provided some additional understanding and perspective.
"We have the implosion of all politics. I've never experienced anything like this," she says. "Talking to people considerably older than me and more experienced than me - they've never experienced anything like this. People are talking about it as a sort of once-in-a-lifetime constitutional crisis."
Immigration and low wages are a couple issues to blame for the exit, but as Bolderson explains: "There has been a big cut in government spending. Some of the poorer areas, particularly in the northeast have suffered because of the cuts to the health care system, education, local government spending, and in wellfare as well. People are feeling that, but they're blaming it not on their own government but the European Union."
