Brexit Metaphor No 3
Brexiteers dream of turning Britain into a deregulated free-trade paradise commonly referred to as "Singapore-on-Thames". Remainers fear isolation and economic decline will convert the UK into "Minsk-on-Trent". The most likely outcome from Brexit is probably somewhere in the middle: I call it "Venice-on-Severn".
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| Westminster Bridge in 1747, painted by Canaletto (Source: Wikipedia) |
Singapore-on-Thames is a pipe dream, given the political traditions of the UK, the recent rise of Corbynism and the size of the country. Minsk-on-Trent is a bugbear: even under Corbyn as a possible future prime minister, the UK is unlikely to slide into authoritarian rule. However, Venice-on-Severn is, sadly, a realistic prospect.
Venice lost its prime position as the trading and banking hub of Europe in the 1500s after the Ottomans cut off access to Middle Eastern trade routes and the resulting Age of Discovery definitively moved trade flows from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic. Venice did not disappear completely but it was reduced to the status of a "museum of nostalgia" for rich European (and now Chinese) tourists.
The UK is about to give up voluntarily many of its European supply chain networks (including all manufacturing that depends on just-in-time delivery from Europe) and will hand over a chunk of the thriving financial sector of the City of London to European competitors Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Dublin.
However, Paddington Bear, the Loch Ness Monster, the Queen, James Bond and Sherlock Holmes will still be around, in case you are a tourist and started wondering. While Winnie-the-Pooh may finally get his own Doge's Palace.
(158 more daily Brexit Metaphors to follow until Brexit day, March 29, 2019)
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