What has happened is that the way the US and other large emerging economies will see is. They will want to deal with Europe, and the large financial bloc that that represents. Will they want to deal with us, the little country on the edge separately? Ony if we have something staggeringly good to offer.

I think we need to be part of something bigger to get on in the new age of global encomies. We need to lose the old romantic idea that we are a single nation able to stand on its own. We aren't. There is no Empire to fall back on. No massive military might with which to threaten our neighbours.

Drop the idea of the nation state as anything other than a ceremonial entity.

we own the financial sector not only for this country but for the whole of Europe
it has to come from and to the city of London

not withstanding that if and i state if we joined NAFTA (or at least had an agreement) all trade from NAFTA to the EU and from the EU would have to come via 'us'
as we the UK would become the only gateway, there is a bigger picture ...

as of the comment highlighted
in the Global sense national Govt. have become like local councils, they have no effect Globally ...

Evil, money grubbing, short term focussed tossers aside, the UK still needs what tax revenue we get from the financial services industry; and signing up to the Merkozy plan would decimate it, apparently. Perhaps, it would just force the majority to operate from countries where they still get to make their daily fortunes, and we get even less.

As I see it, the veto damned us, but so would signing up to the new euro deal.

So, by failing to secure the concessions our country needs, David Cameron screwed us. Royally.

I'm sure that was a huge over-simplification, and it was much more nuanced and intricately complicated. We're still screwed though.

I shudder to say it but, maybe Ed Miliband was right - Cameron went into it unprepared, and should have spent time and resources building alliances that would strengthen our position; and maybe get us some way towards what we needed.

im afraid i disagree
the veto saved us from an 'unelected' body who have never got their accounts signed off (at nay time) and are reaching for/to a greater level of debt that was and still is unseen ...

Can anyone tell me what's stopping the banks sodding off into Europe anyway?
If it's the time difference thing, then isn't Cammers a fan of moving us onto the same time as the EU, thus rendering it null and void?

do you really think that the banks and its institutions would be better of in Europe ?
the banks and institutions know which side the bread is buttered ...

Well as long as we let them carry on milking us for all we're worth and not returning a penny in taxation, then I suppose not...

Actually, anyone with half a brain cell knows they would be better off in the Cayman Islands, and will all sod off there as soon as it serves them to do so. They're loath to do it right now as they know they can bully Cameron into giving them whatever they want. Should it ever look like we have a government that will stand up to the city in any real sense (for example, one that institutes a regulator with any actual power) you won't see them for dust.

As to Tory Boy blathering on about us having to protect the city because it's 10% of the economy, they've spent the best part of 25 years dismantling manufacturing in the UK and it's still 12% of the economy even now but they show no signs of giving a damn about that - they're practically scrapped funding for science & engineering teaching in higher education for a start. The City is not by any stretch of the imagination vital to the good of the nation. They may well be vital to the good of the tory party because that's where most of their funding comes from. The city has leeched money from us all that should be being used for the vital good of the nation, like teaching our children and treating our sick.

Jon

please remember what goes around comes around, its just a matter of time ...

does the Cayman isles have the same reputation as the City of London and can deal within the EU

please get real, its not a matter of want its a matter of fact and thats what we have to live with, fact ...

is that a self portray you are displaying ...

I know you are so what am I?...

... and other primary school insults

1) We won't be 'within the EU' either if things carry on the way they are going. They'll rebuild their financial machine without us, because we're protecting our precious 'financial centre' which they just won't use any more, They'll sort things out among themselves. And when the bits of Europe that actually generate real money by making and doing stuff don't need us anymore, what are we going to do? China and India won't need us. America doesn't need us. Russia is barely talking to us. When we have no friends left at all, where is our centre of power then?

2) Reputation? Really? What reputation does the city have left? It lost hundreds of billions of pounds. Of other people's money. It certainly can't do that again, because the money isn't there to bail them out again. Growth in the UK and EU is going to stagnate for years while we recover and rebalance. The returns from the city are going to be significantly less than they have in the past and the city's 'reputation' was based almost entirely on using 'virtual' growth as a three card trick to generate money where it didn't exist. Which I suspect people won't be quite so willing to go along with again. They won't be able to do what they did before while growth is minimal and industry is risk-averse. I think you'll find reputation counts for nothing compared to actually making money.


Says the man claiming private industry will value reputation over profit.


Almost nothing of what you said was 'fact'.

Jon

Maybe when they get their house in order and become more accountable to the people who actually live in Europe. It's estimated the EU loses £1,000,000 a day in fraud, and wastes millions on projects that either never materialize or a blatant waste of money.

http://www.openeurope.org.uk/research/t ... te2010.pdf

http://www.openeurope.org.uk/media-cent ... ewsid=2691