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I have no special sympathy for bankers, but the matter of the fact is that London and the South East are the engine of the country, largely subsidising the rest

I have no special sympathy for bankers, but the matter of the fact is that London and the South East are the engine of the country, largely subsidising the rest, and finance is the engine of London. It's all good and fun to say bankers jobs will be somebody else's problem, but you are offering to replace that money with what, exactly ? The UK used to be the laughing stock and sick man of Europe in the late 70s, had IMF loans like Greece today. It really doesn't take that much more than a wound like Brexit to fall back again into misery over a couple of decades.

ZenoArrow 9y ago
> "I have no special sympathy for bankers, but the matter of the fact is that London and the South East are the engine of the country, largely subsidising the rest, and finance is the engine of London." But that's the problem, over-reliance on a single industry. The thing is, it wasn't seen as a weakness by politicians whilst the money was rolling in. However, many people outside London recognised it as a weakness as their industries were being neglected whilst the UK transitioned towards becoming a service economy. I'm not suggesting their won't be a downturn from bankers leaving, but I am suggesting it's a necessary one to break the myth that the service economy approach is the only one worth pursuing. The UK will need to become more self-reliant to return to stability, and that will ultimately be a good thing.