Britain’s future will be even brighter if we take back control from the EU this Independence Day June 22, 2016 Imagine the UK is the best place in the world to do business. With controlled migration that means we choose the skilled people we need, we now have a high wage, high productivity, high skills economy and are trading in a globalised world. Investment is strong, attracted to a high performance Britain, and we have a [...]
Ten reasons Britain is better off remaining in the EU – and Brexit would be the biggest own-goal in history June 22, 2016 This referendum could be the most important vote you ever cast. The last opportunity we had to give our view on the European question was in 1975, when many of today’s electorate were not yet born. As it happens, this was one year before I set up my own business, Travelex, at the age of [...]
I was a Remainer. This is why I’ve just changed my mind June 22, 2016 I have changed my mind – and you can too. Every relationship is built on trust – from the first moment you catch that special someone’s eye, through a whispered “I do” of a marriage proposal, to the last comforting moment holding hands in old age. Trust helps us look past others’ shortcomings and binds [...]
Britain’s bright Brexit future: A trader’s perspective June 22, 2016 I have been working in the City since I left school at the age of 15 in 1968, so I think it’s fair to say I know a bit about finance. As the founder and chief executive of CMC Markets, an online trading company with a market cap of approximately £800m which entered the FTSE [...]
Brexiteers must stop using Turkey as a weapon: There’s one very simple reason it will never join the EU June 22, 2016 Four decades ago, in the summer before Britain's first European referendum, a country, now in the EU, faced the unimaginable terror of full scale military invasion. Operation Attila, as it was chillingly codenamed, saw multiple amphibious landings, a paratroop assault, airstrikes, commando missions, and prisoners of war rounded up and shipped overseas. By the end [...]
Perhaps chancellor George Osborne needs an emergency Budget after all June 22, 2016 Chancellor George Osborne took some flak for last week's anti-Brexit stunt, during which he unveiled an "illustrative" emergency Budget consisting of £30bn in tax hikes and spending cuts. This sweeping phase of austerity would be necessary following a vote to leave the EU, Osborne insisted, due to the ensuing economic shock. Economists were unimpressed with the proposal, [...]
Eleven reasons voters will opt for the positive choice of Brexit June 22, 2016 As the markets try to second-guess the outcome of the EU referendum tomorrow, swinging one way and then the other, what is plain is that it is so tight that no-one really knows who will win. But I continue to be confident the British people will vote to leave the EU. So to all you [...]
The EU referendum has shown voters to be the irrational creatures they really are June 22, 2016 Some things never seem to change. In the mid-sixteenth century, in the course of her short reign, Queen Mary, a daughter of Henry VIII, tried to restore Catholicism to England. To this end, she arranged to marry King Philip of Spain, at a time when Spain dominated Europe. The Spanish ambassador in London sent back [...]
Why Britain leaving the EU would push Europe back into crisis June 22, 2016 If the UK votes to leave the EU, it would have significant consequences across the region. Indeed, it would represent a third phase in Europe’s rolling crisis, following the Eurozone crisis and the migration crisis, both of which remain unresolved. Voter disaffection has been rising and the region’s political capital and policy-making capacity have both been run [...]
As German judges clear the ECB’s OMT crisis bond-buying scheme, is it a step forward for the Eurozone? June 22, 2016 Dr Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg, says Yes. The European Central Bank (ECB) is the lender of last resort for the Eurozone. By throwing out legal challenges to the ECB’s “whatever it takes” promise, Germany’s constitutional court filled the one decisive gap in the institutional setup of the Eurozone. In mid-2011, an irrational market panic [...]