British voters will consider an important question on Thursday: should they stay in the European Union, or should they go?
Momentum for both sides of the "Brexit"—or, the "British exit" from the European Union—has been building, especially in the last week after the assassination of Jo Cox, a pro-remain politician.
But what would a Brexit really mean for the UK? There are economic arguments on both sides.
The "vote leave" camp says cutting ties with the EU will free up the UK to negotiate trade with other countries around the world. But, the "vote remain" camp, including Prime Minister David Cameron, says leaving the EU would weaken the British economy. There are other concerns -- including immigration, jobs and housing.
As voters in the UK make up their minds, Take Two checked in with three British Angelenos for their thoughts on Brexit—all in favor of Britain staying in the EU.
For another view we turned to Paul J. Wright, chair of the British American Business Council, Los Angeles.
Interview highlights
On how members of the BABCLA feel about Brexit:
Well, it's a very common theme of conversations now, so it's difficult for me to gauge the respective balance of opinions. I suspect it very much mirrors the country which is about 50 percent want to stay in and 50 percent want to leave.
On any divisions stemming from different opinions:
I don't think it's really doing that in the UK at the moment but definitely not here. The Brits in Southern California is quite a large group, at least 250,000 and probably a lot more. By and large, we're a pretty cohesive group and I haven't seen any unpleasantness or disagreement over people having differing opinions.
On how LA businesses could be affected by a potential Brexit:
The L.A. businesses would be concerned particularly if they had a presence in Europe, like I was at a social get-together, and there was an individual there in the movie industry and they had also offices in Europe and he was concerned that if Britain voted to come out that it may well affect his job in that a critical component of his work was the link between the UK and Europe.
On the future of trade between the US and UK if the Brexit is approved:
There's no free trade agreement between the US and UK, but the UK is the largest single investor, country by country, in the US, and it's the same vice-versa: the US is the largest single investor in the UK, and that's without a free trade agreement. There would be no difference in coming out of the EU. We would still be in our present position, plus, in my opinion, have the ability to negotiate our own free trade agreement with the US and other countries.
On supporting Brexit despite predictions of economic uncertainty:
I don't think I'm an outsider. There's some very prominent businesspeople—one such example is James Dyson, whose company exports many products to the US. He believes that the British economy will flourish outside of the EU, and incidentally, the exchequer who was in charge of the economy under Margaret Thatcher, Lord Lawson, also believes that to be true.