4 ms·
This might sound like cheap shots, but I say it with love for my friends in the Uk... If you look at Britain historically...coal is dead. Wool is dead. The isl
by poulsbohemian 4y ago
This might sound like cheap shots, but I say it with love for my friends in the Uk...
If you look at Britain historically...coal is dead. Wool is dead. The island itself is fairly small for much agriculture. There aren't a whole lot of natural resources. They had power and resources through their empire, but that is gone. Their one shot, so to speak, was like many developed nations - services, including financial. But Brexit was signaling, and companies saw that there was little incentive to stay and do business there vs. Frankfurt, Zurich, New York, etc.
So... yeah, a lot of us pre-Brexit saw this malaise not only for what it was, but what it was going to become. It isn't a pretty picture and the utter void of competent political leadership means this is probably a protracted decline.
- TremendousJudge 4y agoSounds like the country is regressing to the mean then. Thanks to the empire they are used to being on top of the world, but all their advantages are gone now except for the tax havens and an old cultural narrative that the British are inherently better than everybody else.
- tim333 4y agoWe have odd strengths in spite of being kind of crap at most things. Books for example. >According to a new report from the International Publishers Association (IPA), UK publishers released 184,000 new and revised titles in 2013. This equates to 2,875 titles per million inhabitants, and places the UK an astonishing 1,000-plus titles ahead of second-placed Taiwan and Slovenia (1,831). Australia is considerably lower, at 1,176, while the US published just 959 titles per million inhabitants. Also music, universities, financial services, tea rooms etc.
- radicaldreamer 4y agoTheir financial empire still remains strong, as a conduit or storage tank for illicit flows from corrupt countries worldwide (a kind of Switzerland with a large population and areas for investment).
- drcongo 4y agoLondon is the money laundering capital of the world. That's literally all we have left.
- alephnerd 4y agoBrings a whole new meaning to "Singapore on the Thames" eh
- dTal 4y agoI think that was always the meaning at some level, to be honest.
- euroderf 4y agoTo be exact, the City of London - the "square mile" that is a 95% self-ruling medieval enclave within the city of London.
- actionfromafar 4y agoLest someone think this is a joke or exaggerated. No, it's literally true. Corporations have a direct vote in the assembly. It's policed by itself and answers to no-one, not even the symbolic "crown"