Simon Head

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Brexit Take Back Control

EuropaUnión Europea,

When I was a schoolboy in Britain studying history, one of my classmates asked our teacher to nominate the most incompetent British politician of modern times. Without a moment’s hesitation, he named Lord George Germain, who was from November 1775 until February 1782 the secretary of state for the colonies in the government of Lord North, and so the high official most responsible for the conduct of the War of Independence on the British side. Germain’s hazy knowledge of North American geography, combined with his attempts to micromanage the prosecution of the war from London, contributed heavily to the defeat at Yorktown in 1781, and so to the loss of the war and of the thirteen colonies.…  Seguir leyendo »

London, March 20, 2017. Matt Dunham/AP Images

EuropaUnión Europea,

On Wednesday, March 29, the British government formally notified the European Union (EU) that it will leave the twenty-eight-nation organization, officially setting in motion the procedure known as “Brexit.” According to Article 50 of the Treaty of Lisbon, the two sides now have two years to complete their separation and negotiate their future relationship. If no agreement between the two sides has been reached by March 29, 2019, the UK’s membership in the EU will automatically lapse, unless the EU agrees to prolong the negotiations. It will become just another foreign country with which the EU does business, treated no better or worse than Zimbabwe, Thailand, or Paraguay.…  Seguir leyendo »

The Death of British Business

EuropaUnión EuropeaUE a debate,

It is hard to exaggerate the scale of the disaster the British people have inflicted upon themselves with their decision to leave the European Union, taken in the referendum last June. More than three and a half months since the vote, some of this damage is difficult to quantify, including loss of influence with the US, Europe, and the wider world, the flourishing of insular nationalism, especially in England, and growing hostility toward immigrants—a tendency that had been already visible during the referendum campaign and was disgracefully exploited by the Leave campaigners. But in recent weeks, there have also been stark indications of a kind of damage that is readily quantifiable and severe: the damage that Brexit has and will continue to inflict on the UK economy—an economy that, after decades of mismanagement, is overwhelmingly dependent on foreign enterprise and foreign capital.…  Seguir leyendo »