Brexit – the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union – was the great political attraction of Boris Johnson’s era as British Prime Minister. However, its effects have been disastrous for international trade, especially for Spain. As the daily Expanión explains, Brexit, Boris Johnson’s great electoral claim, has taken away 18 billion euros in trade between the United Kingdom and Spain. In 2021, the first full year of Brexit, UK…
*This article was originally published by Fair Observer. Atul Singh & Martin Plaut | Since Brexit in 2016, the United Kingdom’s growth rate has been poor. Inflation is at its highest rate in 30 years. In December 2021, it had risen to 5.4%. Wages have failed to keep up and, when we factor in housing or childcare costs, the cost of living has been rising relentlessly. COVID-19 has not been…
The Conversation | Boris Johnson has unveiled an additional 1.25% levy on national insurance paid by wage earners and employers, which will raise £14 billion a year to help pay for the NHS and reforms to social care. Coming on the back of rises to income tax and corporation tax that were announced in the budget in March, it is the latest example of the government using tax rises rather than austerity to rein in public finances that have been hit by the cost of the pandemic. We asked Alex de Ruyter, a Professor of Economics at Birmingham City University, to explain how it would affect different parts of society.
Peter Isackson | The Guardian offered its readers what is certainly the most comic and hyperreal sentence of the week when it reported that “Boris Johnson accused the EU of preparing to go to ‘extreme and unreasonable lengths’ in Brexit talks as he defended breaching international law amid a mounting rebellion from Tory backbenchers.”
Peter Isackson | Until January 31 of this year, there was both a tunnel linking Britain to the continent and a powerful (metaphorical) bridge called the European Union. Now the tunnel is all that connects England and Europe. Johnson’s engineers are hard at work dismantling that symbolic bridge, which may explain why Boris feels the still-united kingdom needs a new physical bridge — a symbol to replace a symbol.
The calm that preceded Boris Johnson’s electoral victory and the approval of Brexit is coming to an end and the gaps looking ahead raise the question “And now what?”. The UK PM faces the option of hooking up with existing EU standards, which will allow for greater trade; and regulatory autonomy, which gives the UK domestic control, but makes trade difficult. But the choice of one way or the other will have consequences.
Allianz GI / Victory for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative party in the UK general election is likely to be welcomed by markets and potentially boosts prospects for the UK economy. It doesn’t, however, end the Brexit uncertainty overnight – and the UK continues to be vulnerable to a late-cycle global environment.
J. P. Marín-Arrese | All Brexiteers want is fast delivery and no one better placed than Boris to capitalise on their anger and frustration.
Patrik Lang, Head of Equities Research, Julius Baer | A further delay on 31 October seems currently the most likely scenario. General elections later on will decide the fate of Brexit. For continental European equities, we see a 10% downside in the event of a hard Brexit, mainly driven by financials and autos.
Peter Isackson via Fair Observer | From politics to science and the arts, we need to understand how “influence” works and how the notion has evolved in recent history.