By George ILIEV
Brexit Metaphor No 76
The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has a timely message to the British public (see photo): "We are not an island... We are part of something far, far bigger." Britain is indeed far more than an island; it is a gateway.
If you apply the 1861 Scottish census definition of an "island", Britain can support more than one grazing sheep so technically it is still an island. However, many islands are remote and desolate places, while a select few are gateways.
To qualify as a gateway, you need two things:
1) a "strong and stable" avant-port; and
2) a big or growing hinterland.
The list of such locations on the world map is quite short, for example:
a) Hong Kong is the gateway to China;
b) Singapore - to Southeast Asia;
c) Dubai - to the Middle East;
d) and Britain - to Europe.
There is an implicit third factor needed for a gateway to prosper: the sustained and shared appreciation that its wealth depends on the hinterland. This is where Hong Kong's case is really instructive for Britain: Hong Kong has been bending over backwards to Beijing for more than 20 years to keep the economic relationship running smoothly. And this is where Brexit Britain comes short: by trying to cut itself off from Europe in a confrontational way, it is jeopardising its own welfare.
The UK has yet to understand the full implications of Theresa May's October 2016 "citizens of nowhere" speech. Paraphrasing it to apply to the country as a whole is a dead giveaway: if you are a gateway to everywhere, you are a gateway to nowhere.
Britain has little time left to decide whether it wants to maintain its status as a gateway, or if it is content to be relegated to a holiday getaway for Chinese tourists: a Venice-on-Severn where Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear "rake in the honey".
Brexit Metaphor No 76
The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has a timely message to the British public (see photo): "We are not an island... We are part of something far, far bigger." Britain is indeed far more than an island; it is a gateway.
If you apply the 1861 Scottish census definition of an "island", Britain can support more than one grazing sheep so technically it is still an island. However, many islands are remote and desolate places, while a select few are gateways.
To qualify as a gateway, you need two things:
1) a "strong and stable" avant-port; and
2) a big or growing hinterland.
The list of such locations on the world map is quite short, for example:
a) Hong Kong is the gateway to China;
b) Singapore - to Southeast Asia;
c) Dubai - to the Middle East;
d) and Britain - to Europe.
There is an implicit third factor needed for a gateway to prosper: the sustained and shared appreciation that its wealth depends on the hinterland. This is where Hong Kong's case is really instructive for Britain: Hong Kong has been bending over backwards to Beijing for more than 20 years to keep the economic relationship running smoothly. And this is where Brexit Britain comes short: by trying to cut itself off from Europe in a confrontational way, it is jeopardising its own welfare.
The UK has yet to understand the full implications of Theresa May's October 2016 "citizens of nowhere" speech. Paraphrasing it to apply to the country as a whole is a dead giveaway: if you are a gateway to everywhere, you are a gateway to nowhere.
Britain has little time left to decide whether it wants to maintain its status as a gateway, or if it is content to be relegated to a holiday getaway for Chinese tourists: a Venice-on-Severn where Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Bear "rake in the honey".
 |
| HSBC ad in the London Tube |
---
Notes:
1. Timeline: This article is part of a series of original #BrexitMetaphors published daily. A total of 76 have been posted so far and another 85 Brexit Metaphors will be published every day until the planned Brexit date of March 29, 2019.
2. Disclosure: The author has a master's degree in European Integration. He also thinks he knows a bit about business, economics, entrepreneurship, China, history, geography, nature, science and Rubik Cubes.
3. Invitation: If you'd like to contribute to the debate, please leave a comment below or re-tweet the blogpost link.
4. Sign-up: I would be thrilled if you signed up to receive my blog daily by entering your email address in the blank in the top right-hand corner of this page.
5. Thank you for being here!
My article focuses on gateways that prosper thanks to somebody else's territory (otherwise all major US cities, Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, etc. are gateways to their own country/region). This "profiteering" comes with some sort of a tradeoff with sovereignty, e.g. naming your highest tower after the emir next door (Dubai's Burj Khalifa), or self-censorship (Hong Kong media), or abiding by EU rules (UK).
ReplyDelete