Oddly this sort of thing might help keep us in the EU. I mean, I am still hopeful this result will be reversed. In theory that is easy, as it was a purely advisory vote. And politicians can point to the damage being done as reason to avoid leaving the EU.gravy wrote:Yep, a mate close with a lot of high level C++ developers working for a couple of banks said they're moving out of the UK. They drew up contingency plans a while ago and are now acting on them.
But it will be a lot easier politically if they can point to other benefits than the economic one, which Leave supporters can argue was taken into account by many voters during the referendum campaign (even if they mainly addressed the economic problems with lies).
I.e. it will be much easier if politicians can point to a reduction in immigration, which was many Leave voters’ main concern. And that might be happening already. And with our obsession with net migration, so the figures are published every month (for the last 12 months) we might know very soon.
Yes, a reduction in net migration is happening because of damage to the economy, but that was always going to be the case. Migrants overwhelmingly benefit the economy, with the two main groups students and workers in different ways providing a massive boost. You don’t reduce their numbers without harming the economy.
On migration, an interesting statistic I heard yesterday. Migration to the UK is of two sorts: from the EU which we have no control over, and from outside the EU which is entirely under our control. Before 2015 (when it reversed) net migration from outside the EU was larger, accounting for over 50% of the net migration total. That means that before 2015 the government could have easily more than halved the net migration figure by simply stopping migration from outside the EU. They don’t as the economic damage would be enormous (all those students from China keeping our universities afloat). A shame they don’t have the courage to explain this.
