An iron law of modern British government says that whatever London wants, London gets. On Monday, with no fuss or publicity, the Bank of England and a group of City interests reached an apparently boring deal in Paris with the European Security and Markets Authority. It follows a similar deal with the European commission last December. Both state, in effect, that, as far as the City is concerned, if there is a no-deal Brexit, Brexit did not happen. It was just play-acting by idiots down the road in Westminster....The regulators have duly issued licences to the clearing houses, allowing Europe’s banks to disregard EU rules and continue trading on London’s derivatives platforms. Financially speaking, London is to become a “free port”...a light lunch in Brussels, a pat on the back in Paris, a quiet handshake and let’s call it a bad dream.
The best bit was setting the motto of a big company called ION Markets -- 'We need to disrupt the status quo' -- against the Bank of England's spokesperson: “The important thing is we have certainty,”
For every other business there is no such certainty, of course.Predicting the need for State subsidy to protect those industries, Jenkins declares:
Brexit will mean a Tory party taking Britain back to state intervention by the back door..
Not necessarily a bad thing, we might think, allowing for the contradictions at the heart of moderncapitalism that would result, but Jenkins concludes with what every left Brexit opponent of Mrs May's deal knew:
The real gap that Brexit will widen yet further is not just between financial services and trade in food and manufactures. It is between London and the rest of the country. Already the Treasury’s staggering £4.2bn “for Brexit preparations” is tipping jobs into the capital. The greatest irony is that London and the south-east of England, which voted overwhelmingly for remain, will emerge from a hard Brexit richer than ever. It is the provinces that voted leave that will suffer.
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