The word "Brexit", the union of the words "Britain" and "exit", is a way of
expressing the concept of the UK leaving the EU and even Oxford adopted
Brexit as a word of the English language.
There are two possible Brexits, the first one is soft and the second one is
hard. We will start by defining the former: its supporters want to exit from
the EU but remain in an open market and keep the freedom of movement (right
to travel).
On the other hand, as we said before, the latter is the complete separation
of the UK from the EU.
How did we reach Brexit?
The first time we have heard about Brexit was in May 2012 when Peter
Wilding, the founder and director of the British influence think tank, wrote
about it because he wanted to stay in the EU.
From this point over the use of this word increased and everybody started
using it.
Why is Britain leaving the European Union?
For voting the Brexit, the English Parliament called a referendum where the
question was: "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European
Union or leave the European Union?".
More than 30 million of people voted, with a result of 51,9% of leave and
the other 48.1% of remain.
Consultation is (as the word suggest) only consultative and non-binding:
this means that Great Britain is not obliged to leave the EU, in fact, the
London Parliament can decide not to take note of the popular vote.
History
Even from the beginning of the EU, the UK's membership was different
from the other States (for example it never adopted the euro (1999));
David Cameron made a speech about the EU -> promise to renegotiate
membership in the EU -> the exit of the UK from the EU wasn't
discussed yet;
2015: Cameron was reelected as Prime Minister;
During the election campaign of 2015 that earned him re-election,
David Cameron included in his program the possibility of holding a
referendum with which the British people could express themselves on the
permanence of the United Kingdom in the European Union;
23 June 2016: vote.
How much will it cost?
We don't know yet: there is a debate about the long-term costs and benefits
to the UK economy, but the EU before the UK leaves wants to know exactly how
much it will cost to leave.