Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
Brexit Cost London 40,000 Finance Jobs
The Lord Mayor of London, not the same as the elected mayor of London, has issued a report that says Brexit has cost the financial sector, the City of London or just the City in the vernacular, some 40,000 jobs. Some 10,000 of those jobs are now in Dublin. Milan, Paris and Amsterdam also picked up extra positions. This was entirely predictable and predicted by those, including this journal, who believe leaving the EU was the biggest mistake any British government could have taken this millennium. Included in that noble group are 70% of the people who worked in the City at the time of the referendum. It is the result of bad policy badly done.
The Lord Mayor of London (think Dick Whittington) is a job that goes back centuries. The official website states, "The Lord Mayor of the City of London is the head of the City of London Corporation, the governing body of the Square Mile dedicated to a vibrant and thriving City, supporting a diverse and sustainable London within a globally-successful UK. Elected annually, the Lord Mayor of the City of London is an international ambassador for the UK's financial and professional services sector." One would not be far off the mark to call the position the equivalent of the president of the local chamber of commerce.
Michael Mainelli is the current Lord Mayor, the 695th to hold the title. "Brexit was a disaster," said Mr. Mainelli speaking to Reuters. "We had 525,000 workers in 2016. My estimate is that we lost just short of 40,000." EY consultants said in 2022 they figured the number was 7,000.
Yet the Brexiteers opined that by freeing the UK of the red tape in Brussels, UK industry would be unleashed on the world. As Dennis Healey said of debating Geoffrey Howe back in the dark days of Margaret Thatcher, it was really "like being savaged by a dead sheep." If Brexit did offer any opportunities to British industry, they went unappreciated.
Instead of taking on the world of finance, Reuters noted, "Economic output in the heart of Britain's financial sector, including banks and wealth funds, has fallen by more than 15% since late 2019, just before the UK formally left the EU.
"Overall, financial services output in Britain has fallen by 1% since late 2019 -- a stark contrast with France and Germany, where it has increased by 8%, and Ireland's 18% growth, national account data shows."
The UK Office for Budget Responsibility stated, “Since the June 2016 EU referendum, our forecasts have assumed that the volume of UK imports and exports will both be 15 per cent lower than if we had remained in the EU. We assume that the resulting reduction in the trade intensity of GDP will lead to a 4 per cent reduction in the potential productivity of the UK economy (relative to remaining in the EU), with the full effect felt after 15 years.” It has recently said this prediction was on track.
Compounding the idiocy of leaving a massive trading bloc was the ridiculous way the Tory governments went about implementing the idea. They tried several times to pass legislation setting out the terms of the departure, and they continued to fail in passing it. It dragged on literally for years, and some Tory leaders stood for the job by saying they would "get Brexit done." By the time the Conservative Party decided what it really wanted, trading partners had moved on. The moment, if it ever existed, vanished while they dithered.
Brexit was a bad idea. The way it was implement was a disaster of great duration, and indeed, it may still be going on. If one wants an example of the mess bad policy poorly implemented can make, the City of London has 40,000 of them. Or more accurately, there are 40,000 examples that are not there. They moved to EU nations.
© Copyright 2024 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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