London To Tech Startups: Please Don't Mind the Brexit Gap (cnet.com) 165
An anonymous reader writes: The UK faces a potential economic backlash from its decision to exit the European Union, but London Mayor Sadiq Khan doesn't think tech startups should be worried. Khan on Monday stopped in New York while on a goodwill tour that included visits to Montreal and Chicago. His mission: to win back the hearts of tech companies that may be turned off by Brexit. The breakup looks bleak for tech, with nearly nine out of 10 British tech leaders opposing Brexit before the June vote. And while the effects of Brexit haven't taken hold yet, Khan remains optimistic about London. The British metropolis remains Europe's hub for the technology sector, Khan said, citing a poll commissioned by London & Partners, the mayor's economic promotional company. "London's been open to people, to trade and to ideas for more than a thousand years, and that's not going to change," Khan said Monday at the Chelsea office of workspace company WeWork. The survey reached out to more than 200 US tech executives, who believe London is the best city in which to build a startup in Europe, beating out Berlin, Paris and Dublin. While Brexit means London soon won't have access to the EU's open market across the continent, US tech leaders still choose the city for its "favorable time zones and lack of language barriers," according to a statement from the mayor's office.
Nobody knows yet (Score:3, Informative)
Nobody knows yet whether this will turn out to be true. The negotiators may be able to cook up some deal that keeps the UK within the single market but outside the European Union (broadly as happens for Norway). On the other hand, a complete break is also a possibility.
Re:Nobody knows yet (Score:5, Insightful)
EU is going to want to punish UK severely as a warning to others to not leave. There will be no easy access to the single market.
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That is certainly one possibility, though I've also seen an interesting counterpoint recently: given that some other EU member states have a growing movement also wanting to leave, and given that the governments of those states can no longer hide behind the UK when acting in ways that might support doing so, some of them may have to be more open about the possibility now and may want to set a precedent the other way to prove that leaving can work without screwing everyone involved. I don't know whether that
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Support for leaving fell significantly in other European states in the wake of the BRexit vote. The post-BRexit chaos and hits to the market weren't exactly a shining beacon.
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That was all true in the immediate aftermath, but like the market turbulence and most of the other panic reactions in the UK, it appears the sudden emphasis on keeping the remaining 27 together may have been short-lived. I think a lot of people and businesses have woken up to the reality that this is not going to be an overnight change now, and that a lot of what "experts" and politicians of all sides were saying during the referendum campaign and its immediate aftermath has already proved to be unrealistic
Re: Nobody knows yet (Score:2)
Ahh bless. The Brexiters in their Cloud Cuckoo Land. They think we've already Brexited and can't imagine another decade of this.
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Have you somehow concluded that I'm a Brexiter? If so, I'm curious to know what I wrote that gave you that impression. My position is pragmatic realism: the situation is what it is, and regardless of who voted for what or why earlier this year, the important thing now is to make the best of it.
That means trying to mitigate any damage, though obviously that won't be completely possible. It also means trying to maximise the benefits, since obviously there will now be some opportunities that weren't available
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Link here [express.co.uk]
She has already promised a Frexit type referendum
link here [express.co.uk] should she win.
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I am sure that there is a desire to do this, but the simple fact is that such punishment would harm the EU more than the UK: the UK imports more from the EU than it exports to the EU.
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The UK will import more from the EU regardless of what happens with Brexit, because it is economically infeasible for them to import as much from Asia or America as it is to import from across the channel.
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The figure you are looking for is 3% of the rest of the EU GDP, so entirely manageable given a good portion of that will be irreplaceable, aka no source for the goods and services from anywhere else at least in the short term.
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"EU is going to want to punish UK severely as a warning to others to not leave"
I don't think I'd want to be in a union like that.
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Not gonna happen, for the reason of Germany alone. 50% of their Germany's GDP comes from exports in general and the UK is Germany's largest export market after the US. Germany is the core of EU and they will be desperate not to impact exporting to the UK and will be accepting of any treaties with the UK to keep the market.
In fact about a month ago, Germany’s Minister of European Affairs said "Given Britain’s size, significance, and its long membership of the European Union, there will probably b
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France is Germany's largest export market after the US.
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That's true, I mixed it up. UK is Germany's #3. Still critical at the time when Germany's export are down 10% year over year.
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What are you talking about?
Does that [www.bpb.de] look like down 10% year after year to you?
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"In unadjusted terms, exports were down 10 percent over July 2015."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ger... [yahoo.com]
"Compared with July 2015, exports were down a startling 10 percent."
http://www.econotimes.com/Germ... [econotimes.com]
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So basically, you see exports of a single bloody month dropping compared to the same month in the previous year and then pull the "year after year" out of your arse. Now I understand why you guys believed the "350 millions per week" bullshit.
You see, in March and July 2015 Germany has exported more than in any other month in the whole German history. It was an all time high, hence somewhat difficult to repeat.
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So what is your point? The news reports all over are saying German exports are down, things are not looking good, "economic data that paintes a gloomy picture for German manufacturing" (http://www.2bbc.com/news/business-37316827)
What I'm saying is that Germany is so dependent on their exports that at the moment when the reports are negative they are not going to "punish" the UK or do anything that would endanger their economy further, Brexit or no Brexit. What are you saying?
Re: Nobody knows yet (Score:5, Insightful)
The UK makes up about 1/6th of the EU's trade. The EU makes up about 50% of the UK's trade. One side has leverage in these negotiations, and it's not the UK.
The EU has made one thing and one thing alone abundantly clear: there will not, under any circumstances, be access to the single market without corresponding free movement of people. And no, Norway doesn't have that (neither do we here in Iceland). It's one of the founding principles of the EU, and it will not be compromised on.
The UK can of course leave the EU and choose to allow free movement of people in exchange for access to the single market. Whether that's acceptable to UK voters is a whole different story. And playing by the regulations of the single market also kind of defeats the point of the whole brexit thing. Countries like Iceland and Norway still have to obey the vast majority of EU regulations - we just don't get a say in making them.
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Of course there will be access, it may not be complete and at the same level as it was but it will still be there. And it will allow the UK to form agreements with other countries. There are plenty of countries that are not part of the EU that do perfectly well.
As for leverage that is historical, 1/6 1/2 of trade the UK can go other places once it is free the EU bureaucracy the EU cannot, it is still bound by the same rules. There are plenty of countries that are eager to enter into trade agreements with th
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The UK will lose the access to the EU market
That is extremely unlikely, almost inconceivable. The EU trades with non-EU partners all the time. What we're really talking about here is tariffs and regulations, not some impermeable barrier that will suddenly stop UK companies from selling the EU customers or vice versa. There could be real trouble with certain areas, notably the passporting arrangements in the financial services sector, but it's not as if we're all going to stop trading with our nearest neighbours altogether whatever happens.
So good luck with getting good deals with big trading zones like the US or China with being alone.
The UK in i
Re: Nobody knows yet (Score:2)
Omigod it's not like we have to convince Germany to keep selling their cars to us, but that Germany has to convince 26 other states that the deal that's good for Germany is good for them too. Meanwhile Germany has managed amazing trade with China despite no EU-China trade agreement and we're wondering why the UK can't do the same, except perhaps that it produces shit that nobody wants to buy, no matter how much Sterling depreciates.
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You're kidding, surely? China is a major source of investment in the UK, and the UK imports lots of Chinese-made goods.
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I know a number of people myself included that would with a heavy heart vote yes given a second chance.
My support for the union as JK Rowling put it was not unconditional and although I was born in England I can happily trace my Scottish ancestry back as far as 1152 at which point the historical records run out. I am also in the meantime exploring the option of a Polish passport as an option of retaining an EU passport post Brexit.
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The UK makes up about 1/6th of the EU's trade. The EU makes up about 50% of the UK's trade. One side has leverage in these negotiations, and it's not the UK.
I'm not sure how strong the UK's bargaining position really is, but your conclusion seems to be overstating the one-sidedness of the situation.
Even losing 1/6 of its international trade would be devastating to a modern economy, and in practice some of the biggest and most influential nations within the remaining EU would be among the hardest hit. For perspective, the UK is about as economically significant as half of the other EU member states put together (meaning the ones with the smallest economies, obvi
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In fact only 8% of the EU's exports (by value) go to the UK. Also all the talk about German car makers not accepting a 10% tariff looks kinda silly when on the day of the referendum result they lost more than 10% just due to the Pound crashing,
The City (London's financial centre) is operating on the assumption that the UK will come out of the single market. Anything less would be politically unacceptable to a lot of people, because it would mean accepting freedom of movement.
It's looking pretty bleak. Finan
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In fact only 8% of the EU's exports (by value) go to the UK.
This is probably more correct than 1/6 (16.7%) mentioned before. In 2013, UK imports represented 9.7% of the exports of all other EU countries.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/s... [europa.eu]
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Assuming we don't have a general election where the major parties stand on a Breturn platform, that is the most likely scenario.
I find it ironic as this will stick in the craw of all the hardcore Brexiters, which will be entertaining.
Right now, both the UK and EU are lining up attack dogs to go at each others throats with the UK appointing known Brexiters to the exit strategy an
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Thanks for demonstrating the point.
The EU needs the UK. They are not going to cripple their own economy to make some mafia-esq mutilation to show that "nobody leaves, or else."
Both sides will negotiate a fair trade agreement. Life will go on.
Demonstrating the point? Did we read the same post (by Rei)? The UK does not have the leverage it thinks it has. This is a game of brinksmanship on both sides and there is no incentive for the EU to back down and be generous. Admittedly there is also no incentive for May or the Tories to back down at this stage. The difference is that it's their fault we all made it to this point.
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Yes, we read the same post.
The EU is not going to endanger nearly 20 percent of their economy to make a point. It would be far more dangerous to damage the EU economy than the optics of a successful Brexit.
There is not any leverage on either side. Both must get along and negotiate a mutually beneficial deal, or slit their own throats with a childish tantrum.
Yes, I agree they will cut a deal. This will probably happen after months of threats and bluster from both sides. It definitely won't be a pure "screw the Brits" deal. It will contain a few concessions, probably minor restrictions on free movement, which May can point to as victories. These will be the exception rather than the rule. By and large the post-Brexit economic reality will probably resemble the pre-Brexit reality, except that Britain will exercise less influence in EU affairs. The market access
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Exporting cars to the UK will be fine, even if we go back to a WTO-type deal and tariffs need to be paid. Germany exports cars to many countries outside the EU after all. But building cars in UK will be a big issue, as most suppliers are within continental Europe and while the overhead is reasonable for something as big and expensive as a car it isn't if you need to import many small car parts. The UK is too small to build their own complete car supply chain.
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it is very easy, freedom of movement is fundamental for the tech companies which relies on recruiting labour from the whole continent. This is unlikely to be possible without having to go through a lot of red tape.
Last time we recruited from outside the EU, the red tape took close to 6 months to go through.
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The one potential upside of that is that our government might finally have to get its act together and fix the problems that employers and non-EU workers face with our current system. Our economy could be seriously damaged if a similar burden is imposed on EU workers once they're all in the same boat, and in any case, a clearer, more efficient, more accurate system than the current mess would be a benefit to everyone involved.
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Certainly a lot of damage has been done, and continues to be done with the xenophobic/racist brigade throwing their weight around since the referendum. I am hopeful that much of that damage can be undone again if we can push the far-right back into their obscure corner and repair some relationships with our neighbours that seem to have been needlessly antagonistic in recent weeks.
Unfortunately, some of that antagonism is coming from the remaining EU, not just the UK. I suspect a lot of it comes from underly
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As someone that lives outside of London, GOOD.
A massive factor in the referendum is that people living in England outside of 2-3 major cities are getting fucked senseless by the constant investment in London and the utter absence of benefit from any growth in the economy as it's driven by immigration.
We pay for the non-productive immigration on top of that.
So anything that reduces the attractiveness of London to foreign immigrants I will find it hard to see as a bad thing.
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it is very easy, freedom of movement is fundamental for the tech companies which relies on recruiting labour from the whole continent. This is unlikely to be possible without having to go through a lot of red tape.
Last time we recruited from outside the EU, the red tape took close to 6 months to go through.
The Schengen area and the EU are different things. Does Brexit mean the UK is backing out of the Schengen treaty?
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The UK isn't within the Schengen Area anyway.
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it is very easy, freedom of movement is fundamental for the tech companies which relies on recruiting labour from the whole continent. This is unlikely to be possible without having to go through a lot of red tape.
Last time we recruited from outside the EU, the red tape took close to 6 months to go through.
The Schengen area and the EU are different things. Does Brexit mean the UK is backing out of the Schengen treaty?
UK is not in shengen
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I had to ask Gibraltar "immigration" for a passport stamp on the way in, and on the way out back to spain... well it was after 6pm so they'd gone home for the day, I just walked out through their vacant office back in to the schengen area. UK might not be schengen area, but you'd be hard pressed to find it fully enforced.
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I had to ask Gibraltar "immigration" for a passport stamp on the way in, and on the way out back to spain... well it was after 6pm so they'd gone home for the day, I just walked out through their vacant office back in to the schengen area. UK might not be schengen area, but you'd be hard pressed to find it fully enforced.
Maybe in Gibraltar.
I travelled from Eastern Europe to the UK by bus. We passed through about 6 countries but you wouldn't know it until it came to the ferry across from France it was like going to another country!
Re:Nobody knows yet (Score:5, Informative)
On the subject of the V4, their position does perhaps make how things are going to end up a little clearer to predict - provided that they are not just bluffing. Basically, they have promised to veto any Article 50 agreement that doesn't continue to allow free travel (with ID) for their citizens to the UK, as is currently the case. Any Article 50 agreement requires a unanamous vote in favour - all 27 remaining countries - so the only agreement V4 wil accept is a *very* soft exit, which simply won't be acceptable to Leave supporters. Likewise any extension of the two year period requires all 27 nations to agree which is equally unlikely so, two years after the UK invokes Article 50 whenever that is, it defaults to a hard exit with no trade agreements in place - the UK ceases to be member of the EU and becomes just another country with no established trade agreements in place.
That will no doubt make many in the Leave camp very happy... until the implications of having all the EU's trade treaties become null and void and WTO defaults kicking in strike home because they really, really, suck - why else would governments spend so much time negotiating treaties with each other? If we're lucky, we'll have that covered by getting an agreement to maintain the existing EU trade agreements as an interim measure as a stop gap, but if we end up in WTO defaults with one or more of our major trading partners, we're basically screwed - something even Pro-Leave groups concur with. [leavehq.com]
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Adopting Schengen would be the absolute best case outcome for the UK, I really hope they can force us to do it. At the moment using EEA treaty rights is the only way a lot of people who married foreigners can get their families a visa.
Some Brexiteers promised that it would get easier for people married to foreigners, but the week after the result one of them was on Newsnight (BBC TV programme) reneging on it. The good news is that David Cameron's reforms which would have made the EEA route difficult to use
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Basically, they have promised to veto any Article 50 agreement that doesn't continue to allow free travel (with ID) for their citizens to the UK, as is currently the case. Any Article 50 agreement requires a unanamous vote in favour - all 27 remaining countries
This isn't quite correct. An article 50 agreement requires, iirc at least 50% of member states representing at least 66% of the EU population.
However, I think disconnecting access to the free market from freedom of travel does require unanimity. That'
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On passporting, I have to say it is surprising that the words spoken by obviously self-interested financial services companies are being taken at face value by many people. After all, this is an industry who many seem to argue can never be trusted to speak in any manner other than one motivated entirely by their own short-term self-interest.
The reality is that passporting is a sideshow and is about overhead costs for banks, not whether they can operate in any one country. They know that they need to continu
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"freedom of movement" != "absense of border controls".
The UK has never been part of the Schengen area but thanks to EU freedom of movement rules an EU citizen can show their passport or ID card at UK border control and except in highly exceptional circumstances* they must be let through. They can stay as long as they like and they can take a job in the UK without any additional formalities beyond what a UK citizen would need.
Contrast this to say an american. If they want to visit the UK they must convince t
Re:Nobody knows yet (Score:4, Insightful)
More than that, it will still be possible to sell almost anything to European customers anyway. The worst plausible outcome for trade with the EU is probably that we fall back on general WTO agreements for a while, in which case we're mostly talking about tariffs here. Those are going to be relatively small by the standards of startup culture where you're looking for unicorn-level successes anyway, though they could conceivably be more of an issue for regular businesses in tech sectors if the EU decides to be obstructionist in any future trade deal.
There may be some regulatory hurdles, but in fields like IP and data protection our laws are obviously already aligned with the rest of the EU, so there's unlikely to suddenly be some big compliance burden unless the government shoots itself in the foot by trying to soften protections to appeal more to the US tech sector. YMMV if you work in a field like biotech.
The bright side for UK tech businesses, particularly smaller ones and startups, is getting rid of a lot of silly EU regulations passed in recent years, the things that say you have to put cookie warnings on your site, or if someone buys a digital download from you then by default you mustn't actually supply it for 14 days in case they change their mind, or that you have to apply different VAT rates and rules for customers in every different member state you sell to (which can change at literally a few days' notice, which no-one will actively give you) and file special returns accordingly. These poorly implemented regulations cause significant overheads for small businesses who want to be spending their time building useful things instead, often for no real benefit to anyone or even actively annoying customers, and the sooner we're rid of them the better.
There will certainly be downsides, probably including significant economic harm in the short to medium term, from Brexit. If we're going to do it, let's at least try to take advantage of the upsides as well.
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The problem with falling back on WTO rules is that the UK is at this point in time not a signatory in it's own right to the WTO and cannot take up a WTO membership in it's own right until *AFTER* it has left the EU. If you are stupid enough to believe that you can leave the EU on Monday and join the WTO on Tuesday I have a bridge to sell you, currently in use over the Firth of Forth, needed some repairs recently but we have a shiny new one opening next year so it's going spare.
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Technically, the UK can't negotiate much of anything with other international partners until after it's left the EU, but if you believe the interested parties are going to sit around for 2+ years until the official Brexit before starting to talk then I'll sell you that bridge right back.
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I think we're talking about different things here. The EU changed the VAT rules last year to do exactly the opposite of what a common market is supposed to do, so instead of being able to trade internationally under the same rules across the whole market, which was basically the situation before, a lot of businesses now have to be aware of all the local rates and rules in every member state.
There is so much overhead involved as a direct result of that change that a lot of microbusinesses had to stop trading
Re:Nobody knows yet (Score:5, Interesting)
The company I work for exports a lot of stuff to the EU and the rest of the world. Exporting to the EU is much, much easier because the rules are harmonized, and so there is a lot less paperwork and dealing with import tariffs and an office in one country and server other EU member states near it easily enough. Outside the EU things get tricky, especially when trying to move hazardous materials like lithium batteries.
After Brexit our laws are likely to diverge from the EU. After all, what is the point of "taking back control" if they don't? I imagine data protection will be weakened fairly quickly, to allow for greater domestic spying and access to browsing history and email by local government and random agencies like Trading Standards. If you read the submissions made regarding the Snooper's Charter, you can see that they are chomping at the bit to violate your privacy. Human rights and employment law will be gutted too, to make us more "competitive". The race to the bottom is just getting started.
More over, we are going to have to adopt US and Chinese standards to get the trade deals we need. Being only a small player we can't dictate terms any more, we will just have to adopt their rules in much the same way as we have to adopt the EU ones.
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Those are all very reasonable concerns, and to some extent I think I share them all, though I'm less pessimistic in some respects than you seem to be.
While a lot of the EU regulations affecting online businesses are awful, some of the regulations dealing with physical goods seem more relevant and keeping in compliance with them must be advantageous for businesses in those markets. There's no doubt that this is a loss if a good alternative arrangement can't be found before Brexit.
There is also definitely a d
EU lawsuits against tech companies (Score:4, Informative)
If tax evading tech companies are sick of being dragged through European courts and fined hundreds of millions of euros, perhaps they should welcome Brexit with open arms. Imagine, a small island nation that will be easily influenced by promises from corporations to win votes for the politically ambitious. Everything is up for negotiation in the UK.
Brexit means that the UK can be the new America for these tech companies.
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Sure, go right ahead. All England and Wales have to do to make this break really quick and (iron wall-like) permanent is pull a stunt like Ireland did, tell the rest of the EU about it beforehand (or not) and that the EU can, taxes concerning, go eff themselves. The rest of the UK isn't really sure about brexit yet - they are keeping all options open, including secession from the UK.
I'm pretty sure the UK politicians know that themselves as well, especially those (who were) pro-brexit - when you look into t
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Imagine, a small island nation that will be easily influenced
Were we actually short on those already?
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This was my tongue-in-cheek comment to compare the post-Brexit UK to the Cayman Islands.
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If tax evading tech companies are sick of being dragged through European courts and fined hundreds of millions of euros, perhaps they should welcome Brexit with open arms. Imagine, a small island nation that will be easily influenced by promises from corporations to win votes for the politically ambitious. Everything is up for negotiation in the UK.
Brexit means that the UK can be the new America for these tech companies.
This! Also, companies that are unhappy w/ UK leaving the EU - as mentioned in the summary above - have so many choices - from Lisbon to Athens, and from Rome to Stockholm. In the meantime, companies that don't like the EU's Byzantine labyrinth of regulations can go to the UK to set up shop.
Win-win for everybody!
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Well companies that move to the UK probably won't have to pay a fair share of taxes, so I don't think it's a win for the UK.
But for business it's probably a win, assuming we didn't trigger another financial collapse.
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I don't know of any tax evading company that has been dragged through the EU court. The only thing I know of is an EU court ruling some tax agreements illegal, but that is entirely between the company and whichever country they made the dodgy deal with.
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Several companies owe billions in back taxes, according to an EU commission. I think we agree there.
I don't know what threshold you have set for the definition of the colloquialism of "dragged through court", but you're the one that is being unreasonable here.
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If we become a tax haven the EU will just put even more tariffs and restrictions on us. That's where the EU is heading.
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It will take time to drive the quality of life down for UK workers so that businesses can find the place attractive for a HQ.
But if at the very least they can do their banking and lawsuits there.
Other islands that attract business: Cayman Islands, Channel Islands, Bermuda, Monaco, ...
(of course Isle of Man is already a tax haven, so we don't really need Britain)
Not what you think (Score:2)
> nine out of 10 British tech leaders opposing Brexit before the June vote
Yeah It had little/nothing to do with potential markets. It was all to do with holes in the UK labour laws meaning that companies based there could continue to replace local skilled workforce en masse with cheaper foreign labour, which was a practice already illegal in most other EU countries.
Re: Not what you think (Score:2)
Cheaper or better? In the tech sector, especially niche stuff or startups you want the best people, not just the best people from the same country as you. If you don't get the best your competition will.
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Cheaper. Definately cheaper. In my experience nearly all managers, especially non-techincal ones, simply assume that all developers have the same productivity, quality, and are plug-and-play.
england, today, would make orwell cry (Score:2)
I used to travel to the UK quite regularly, in the 80's and some in the 90's. I would not recognize it now, in many ways. they have gone so far into the nanny state and citizen spying, I would never voluntarily move to england and I don't even really want to fly there anymore.
england has jumped the shark and they have so many problems, it would be absurd for a new tech company to move there. the only reason would be for localized business or to have local feet on the ground. but to start a tech company
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I used to travel to the UK quite regularly, in the 80's and some in the 90's. I would not recognize it now, in many ways. they have gone so far into the nanny state and citizen spying, I would never voluntarily move to england and I don't even really want to fly there anymore.
I was in the UK (where I grew up) for a vacation with my wife, who had never been there before and is from a former HARDCORE communist country. She was amazed at all the cameras and surveillance everywhere, even in the public toilets (she was shocked at how filthy they were, even near Buckingham Palace and having to pay to use these filthy toilets).
The most observed population outside of North Korea.
Before Brexit I had a hard time imagining living back in the UK. After Brexit and the vacation I know for sur
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Oblig. Quote (Score:2)
--- Captain Kirk
"remains Europe's hub for the technology sector" (Score:4, Insightful)
Which is kind of contingent upon being part of Europe, economically and administratively speaking.
Life is about tradeoffs, and of course nobody can decide for other people whether the tradeoff is worth it. So if Britons want Brexit, fine. But rejecting one tradeoff means accepting another one; in return for being freed from all the annoying EU stuff, they'll have to pay a price. Insofar as they don't pay that price, then the substance of all that annoying stuff is likely not to go away. So suppose you're a US company interested in the Continental market, not just the UK. The best you could hope for would be the reestablishment of a more complicated version of the status quo.
The uncertainty is such that only a fool would bank on London maintaining its role in the EU. That might happen, or it might not. But either way if you're an American company, well, educated Germans usually speak very good English, often better than the average American does. The central location is also a little more convenient for operations, so locating in Munich is like putting your US HQ in Chicago.
Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics! (Score:2)
"citing a poll commissioned by London & Partners, the mayor's economic promotional company"
As Slashvertisements go this one is a bit more like news BUT it's still PR. Of course the Mayoral commissioned poll is going to show whatever the Mayor needs it to show. And of course the papers are going to let the Mayor get in all of his sound bites as he scrambles to lessen the impact Brexit will have on his people (bottom line).
Meh...
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Obligatory (Score:2)
KHAAAAAAaaaaaaaan!
Not so sure (Score:2)
"While Brexit means London soon won't have access to the EU's open market across the continent, US tech leaders still choose the city for its "favorable time zones and lack of language barriers,"
The same can be said for Ireland which has and will have access to the open market.
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As an American, I think that describing the UK or Ireland as having "a lack of language barriers" to be hopelessly naive.
"The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language." -- George Bernard Shaw
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Germany had a higher percentage of people who are fluent in American English than the UK or Ireland. :)
Anyway, according to the EU, Ireland speaks Irish Gaelic, and when the UK leaves, there will no longer be any officially-English-speaking countri
Your advertising started way back in 2011 (Score:2)
BBC Top Gear was your spokesmen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
- OR - Top Gear Christmas Special 2011
Tech companies hate it (Score:2)
Because it impedes the supply of cheap Eastern European and refugee labor. They'll have to survive by *gulp* innovating and reducing the amount of hookers, coke, and trophy wives they buy.
They can still change their mind about brexit... (Score:2)
I personally believed that brexit would pass.
It actually opens up a path for global EU reform. Things such as a particular country ability to override particular EU laws and regulations but with certain proportional financial penalties that ramp up over time; and or phase in's. And immigration reform. Namely the right of countries to refuse new immigrants. (If a country chooses to adopt a new immigrant they should stay in that country for years to adapt and prove they are civilly minded; I say 10 years. You
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"open market" has always been inside a group, and means it is much easier to do business since the rules are the same, hence extending across europe is easy.
If you're outside of that market, then it doesn't mean you cannot enter it, just that you'll have to go through the usual painful process of inter-country rules. And frankly the EU market has historically been easier to enter than the US market. Protectionism is much lower in the EU than in the US.
So EU-to-EU is an open market. EU-to-Others is a con
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That 109 regulations regarding pillows is bullshit. There are 109 regulations where the word pillow appears somewhere, but almost none of them has anything to do with regular pillows: See this video from John Oliver. [youtu.be]
European pillows (Score:2)
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if a country needs to be in the EU to have access to another country's markets, then that is NOT an "open market"
What David Davis (the minister for Brexit), and many other English people just realised in the last month or so is that you can't make trade deals with individual EU member states because the EU is a single market. You make a trade deal with the EU not with France, Germany, Holland etc.
The fact that Davis didn't already know this, and he of all people should have, just shows how dumb and naive the English are regarding the EU.
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Really? Evidence?
Not to mention you missing entirely that negotiating with the EU requires negotiating individually with its member states. The agreement may be at the EU level across all its members but each member will have specific demands and expectations.
The fact that you didn't already know this, just shows how dumb and naive you are regarding the EU.
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Anyone who thinks the motivation was solely economic is dreadfully un-newsed. Absolutely -- the popularity of the Brexit stems largely from the same issues that have propelled Trump to the forefront: Hillary represents globalism and the same kind of inorganic, forced culture change (or abandonment) that Obama advocated before the UN yesterday. Trump, however, is riding the wave of preservation of national sovereignty.
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The EU is playing a losing game, in the long term. The open-borders, pro-immigration politicians (like Merkel) refuse to admit that they were wrong. They refuse to acknowledge that national borders have a purpose. That unlimited immigration is the same as cultural suicide.
Do national borders really serve a purpose in Europe nowadays? I can understand EU-bloc level borders on the outside, but inside Europe? I grew up in Belgium, which used to be part of what is now the Netherlands, in the part that actually spoke Middelfrankisch until my parent's generation. Culturally, you're probably almost as Belgian as I am... I just happen to share a language with 40% of Belgians because that's where I went to school, and the transmission of the local language was cut after WW2.
I have wo
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The fun bit is that the vast majority (I would say "all so far" but I don't have the hard data to support that point) of Muslims involved in terror attacks on European soil were European citizens, born in Europe to the people we imported "en masse" when we couldn't get enough cheap hands for coal mining and the steel industry. Stopping the immigration of Muslims 10, 20 or even 30 years ago wouldn't have avoided the issue as that ship had already sailed. In the unofficial hierarchy of humanity, the immigrant
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It would be interesting to see the same study from a well-known bastion of left-wing thinking [cato.org] performed in Europe.
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The open-borders, pro-immigration politicians (like Merkel) refuse to admit that they were wrong.
Although Merkel has admitted this week that she didn't get it right.
Only took a massive election defeat too. That's right Mutti, you done fucked up good and proper.
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But what's that worth? Apple employs what, 5000 to 6000 people on their campus in Ireland, so losing those may impact the Dublin economy in the very short term but will do absolutely nothing to the EU. It's not like the company was paying any meaningful amount of taxes anyway. The economic loss on the whole would be short term and negligible.
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I think you need a word with your accountant. His figures disagree with the other figures I've seen.