Macroscope | Pain is the only certainty in Britain’s confused Brexit plan
David Brown says confidence in the already struggling UK economy is falling as the country continues to bicker over the arrangements of its exit from the EU
One thing is very clear: as a nation, Britain seems in deep denial about what happens next. How businesses commit to new investment, consumers invest in the future and financial markets go about their business without deeper foreboding is baffling. There is a growing resignation that everything will be alright on the night, but it won’t. Whatever happens after 2020, Britain will have changed immutably. Not quite our darkest hour, but certainly one of the starkest.
The growing uncertainty is stripping Britain bare of its best future potential. Under Brexit’s cloud, de-industrialisation is picking up pace, Britain’s welfare state is under growing duress and the City of London – the jewel in the nation’s crown – continues to see a rush to the exits.
There is no sign of any galvanising national plans to find a way out of the mess. Britain’s political and business leaders seem at a complete loss over how to rally the nation.