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London is and will be the start-up hub. Barcelona is also is a good place to start a business, but London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit ca

London is and will be the start-up hub. Barcelona is also is a good place to start a business, but London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit can change that.

BjoernKW 10y ago
> London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit can change that. Actually, quite likely it will. One of the main arguments of the "Leave" campaign was curtailing immigration as in effectively reducing it to zero. Now, of course this isn't actually possible and Farage and others are already sheepishly back-pedaling on most of their bold claims. If this whole Brexit affair is supposed to make any remote sense at all there will be limits on immigration, because if the UK will still allow free movement of people and goods from the EU what's the point of leaving in the first place? Limits on immigration will mean less talented people in the city. It's as simple as that. Besides, people from the EU who're already living and working in London either will have to leave or apply for permanent resident permits. Only time will tell how hard those will be to come by but it'll be at least a major hassle.
- phatfish 10y ago
  Immigration was the main argument because that is what people wanted to hear, and got the opportunists like Boris a shot at more power. In reality it is not going to happen. 1. When have politicians ever followed through with a promise they made? 2. Not even the Brexit bunch are stupid enough to intentionally cripple the economy, especially as immigration was an issue for a demographic of voter the Tories actually care nothing about. What the UK could do is put more restrictions on migrants without a job and what in work benefits they can access. Reforms to benefits for migrants were a part of the deal Cameron got from the EU earlier this year -- which is now void -- so Brexit really changes nothing there. Maybe the UK could be stricter with migrants out of work and still get the trade deals.
  - letitleak 10y ago
    The British as non-EU can't get a better deal than the Swiss as a non EU Schengen area member.. I think the British will either lose more control of immigration from this vote or be pretty crippled by poor EU trade agreements leading to the US learning to deal direct with the mainland.
- zhte415 10y ago
  The immigration argument was never about skilled workers. London itself voted heavily in favour of remaining. Immigration was a stirred-up debate citing unskilled eastern european workers taking low paid jobs, heeding and feeding the insecurities of areas of the UK which are and have been economically depressed for decades. I expect visas for skilled workers to quickly become very, very easy, and visas for unskilled workers impossible.
  - BjoernKW 10y ago
    Making immigration an argument only about unskilled labour is incredibly short-sighted. You can't run an economy just with highly-skilled workers. At the very least you can expect things like construction or plumbing to become a lot more expensive (not that I consider either unskilled labour but those are typically not included when talking about visa for skilled workers). Then there's the foreign exchange risk created by this whole mess, which will make skilled work more expensive as well. I've been doing business with UK companies occasionally and up until now I had no problem with billing them in GBP. Now I'll have to bill them in EUR because I'm not willing to take the foreign exchange risk. Since the pound is already massively devalued against the euro and likely will continue to be in the next few years British companies will have to pay a premium for products and services from outside the UK.
    - zhte415 10y ago
      I fully agree.
pyb 10y ago
As London loses (or is on course to lose) easy access to the wider EU market, as well as its ability to recruit from abroad ... pretty much by definition, a Brexit will change that!
NetStrikeForce 10y ago
Now that Spanish elections are settled and the current government will likely keep in power, it would be a master move to ease the legal / bureaucratic / tax side of starting a business in Spain and attract some investments fleeing from the current uncertainty because the whole Brexit situation. Talent is still very high in Barcelona, as the city's attractiveness is not restricted to job opportunities and salaries: Weather, food, international connections, cost of living, location in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean, culture, sports, Pyreness at 2hr drive if you prefer skiing, lots of mountains closer to hike, excellent and cheap public transport network, fast trains to Madrid and Paris, ... What's not to love? :) Of course this is not going to happen as the government is corrupt and has little interest on boosting startups. Their idea of business is siphoning people's money through utility bills (all presidents have / had ultimately become chairmen of different utility companies) and bank commissions.

London is and will be the start-up hub. Barcelona is also is a good place to start a business, but London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit can change that.

BjoernKW 10y ago

> London has a lot a talent form around the world. No brexit can change that. Actually, quite likely it will. One of the main arguments of the "Leave" campaign was curtailing immigration as in effectively reducing it to zero. Now, of course this isn't actually possible and Farage and others are already sheepishly back-pedaling on most of their bold claims. If this whole Brexit affair is supposed to make any remote sense at all there will be limits on immigration, because if the UK will still allow free movement of people and goods from the EU what's the point of leaving in the first place? Limits on immigration will mean less talented people in the city. It's as simple as that. Besides, people from the EU who're already living and working in London either will have to leave or apply for permanent resident permits. Only time will tell how hard those will be to come by but it'll be at least a major hassle.

phatfish 10y ago
Immigration was the main argument because that is what people wanted to hear, and got the opportunists like Boris a shot at more power. In reality it is not going to happen. 1. When have politicians ever followed through with a promise they made? 2. Not even the Brexit bunch are stupid enough to intentionally cripple the economy, especially as immigration was an issue for a demographic of voter the Tories actually care nothing about. What the UK could do is put more restrictions on migrants without a job and what in work benefits they can access. Reforms to benefits for migrants were a part of the deal Cameron got from the EU earlier this year -- which is now void -- so Brexit really changes nothing there. Maybe the UK could be stricter with migrants out of work and still get the trade deals.
- letitleak 10y ago
  The British as non-EU can't get a better deal than the Swiss as a non EU Schengen area member.. I think the British will either lose more control of immigration from this vote or be pretty crippled by poor EU trade agreements leading to the US learning to deal direct with the mainland.
zhte415 10y ago
The immigration argument was never about skilled workers. London itself voted heavily in favour of remaining. Immigration was a stirred-up debate citing unskilled eastern european workers taking low paid jobs, heeding and feeding the insecurities of areas of the UK which are and have been economically depressed for decades. I expect visas for skilled workers to quickly become very, very easy, and visas for unskilled workers impossible.
- BjoernKW 10y ago
  Making immigration an argument only about unskilled labour is incredibly short-sighted. You can't run an economy just with highly-skilled workers. At the very least you can expect things like construction or plumbing to become a lot more expensive (not that I consider either unskilled labour but those are typically not included when talking about visa for skilled workers). Then there's the foreign exchange risk created by this whole mess, which will make skilled work more expensive as well. I've been doing business with UK companies occasionally and up until now I had no problem with billing them in GBP. Now I'll have to bill them in EUR because I'm not willing to take the foreign exchange risk. Since the pound is already massively devalued against the euro and likely will continue to be in the next few years British companies will have to pay a premium for products and services from outside the UK.
  - zhte415 10y ago
    I fully agree.

pyb 10y ago

As London loses (or is on course to lose) easy access to the wider EU market, as well as its ability to recruit from abroad ... pretty much by definition, a Brexit will change that!

NetStrikeForce 10y ago

Now that Spanish elections are settled and the current government will likely keep in power, it would be a master move to ease the legal / bureaucratic / tax side of starting a business in Spain and attract some investments fleeing from the current uncertainty because the whole Brexit situation. Talent is still very high in Barcelona, as the city's attractiveness is not restricted to job opportunities and salaries: Weather, food, international connections, cost of living, location in mainland Europe, the Mediterranean, culture, sports, Pyreness at 2hr drive if you prefer skiing, lots of mountains closer to hike, excellent and cheap public transport network, fast trains to Madrid and Paris, ... What's not to love? :) Of course this is not going to happen as the government is corrupt and has little interest on boosting startups. Their idea of business is siphoning people's money through utility bills (all presidents have / had ultimately become chairmen of different utility companies) and bank commissions.