Brexit Countdown Has Officially Started: UK Out In Two Years
Today, the UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, triggered the famous article 50, which states officially that the UK will not be a part of Europe anymore. This action triggers a two years negotiation phase in which Europe and UK will "talk over" the conditions of this withdrawal.
The popular vote against Europe, lead by the Ukip party, propelled UK into a rather confusing stage, in which xenophobia and strange economic claims ("350 million pounds per day for healthcare should be saved", remember?) created a lot of tension. Tension which doesn't have solid chances to lessen following this decision.
One of the consequences of this action will most likely be Scotland asking for separation from UK, as they already started the procedures for a second independence referendum. A Europe having Scotland in it but not UK will certainly be something very strange.
Political turmoil aside, my personal opinion is that this move will generate a significant afflux of startups towards outside UK, which was, until this all Brexit thing started, the umber one startup hub of Europe. Berlin has great chances to attract all these Brexit renegades, but also countries like Spain or Netherlands could accommodate some of these operations.
We're at the beginning of a very interesting two years period.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me @dragosroua.
In my eyes it was either a decision to be ruled by corrupt bureaucrats in Brussels or corrupt politicians in London, it wasn't a particularly exciting decision either way you look at it. It's just a shame that we are left with a Prime Minister who clearly never wanted to leave the EU in the first place. Bit of a shambles really as one would expect.
Have no idea about the political context. My single point of interest is related to the startup scene and that seems to be shaken right now.
Yes, understood and agreed. It could be argued that what will emerge is a new breed of startups in the UK that have cleverly understood how to diversify based on the changes, especially UK focussed businesses. We can only hope that the government of the UK will provide adequate support for those emerging.
I still don't understand why the UK would leave the EU, but well they voted for it. Actually, the older population of the UK voted for it, and the younger generation voted against it - but well what can you do about it.
They are still working together with the EU and they only suffer from the Brexit - the Dumbest decision of 2016, I guess.
The EU is a joke, and so is UK politics, but the people of the UK have more power now to enact real change than they did previously.
Well, the majority chose. We live in a very fragmented world.
UK will be very interested in keeping/making its (startup) markets attractive. If it doesn't succeed, it will be because of the political will of the European Union elites, who must make us all “understand” that leaving EU is a bad thing — to make this claim real, they must punish UK someway. This is not a “Europe of peace”, though they still use the “peace” line as propaganda (we don't want war, do we?)
Scotland tries again, exploiting the political situation, but parts of it wanted independence from GB since a long time. Though, it puzzles me very much the sense of it: they want independence, and be part of a supernational entity whose political power exists if and only if it can override national sovereignty. That is the opposite of independence, and the aim of the EU is to empty many of the sovereign powers of its members.
From a geopolitical point of view, it makes sense if we consider some agit propaganda: EU lobbyists are in concact with Scottish independentists and likely they are giving also all the support they can give — keeping themselves as hidden as possible, but this won't matter really.
There are plan to make Milan (Italy) the next London. That could open opportunities here (though I'm in Rome and dislike Milan :-D)