Editor’s Notes: The PM needs the citizens of nowhere to make London their home
Theresa May has come a long way since her speech to the Tory party conference in October last year.
Having been denied a meaningful leadership contest before entering 10 Downing Street, the new PM’s first few months in office left the more liberal wing of the Tory party pining for the metropolitanism of Cameron and Osborne.
The conference speech she delivered was an attack on “international elites” and those who consider themselves “a citizen of the world”. Indeed, such people are in fact “citizens of nowhere”, she said, in a move that went down better in Maidenhead than it did in the City.
Read more: Britain must be tough but empathetic toward the EU to secure a good Brexit
Indeed, in the weeks after the referendum, one leading French chief exec who has run a major City firm for years, told me the PM’s anti-globalisation and anti-immigration rhetoric was a greater danger to the UK’s economy than the Brexit vote itself. Thankfully, things have changed.
May’s big Brexit speech a couple of weeks ago emphasised a commitment to globalism, internationalism and free trade. It was a stance echoed in her landmark address to US Republicans last week. These two speeches were, in my opinion, by far the best that she had delivered as Prime Minister.
The change in tack is most welcome, because it could well be the “citizens of nowhere” who ensure that May’s Brexit is a success.
Read more: Hurting the City will hurt the EU too
For all the early talk of chastising the elites and lambasting the international workforce of the City, the truth is that the UK will need a roaring global financial centre even more post-Brexit than before.
The European and American masters of the City, many of whom have been here for years (and some of whom have just arrived) are the ones who will determine whether euro-clearing stays in London or how many jobs leave for Frankfurt.
Everyday they pump blood into the veins of the British and global economy and the PM needs them. She needs the citizens of nowhere.
Read more: Even top EU officials believe it will lose out in bad deal for City
Top investor finds reasons to celebrate
On Wednesday night, parliament voted to give Theresa May the authority to trigger Article 50. For Brexit-backers this was a sweet moment, and it likely saw a few extra bottles of champagne popping at Luke Johnson’s birthday party.
Read more: How serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson dodged journalism for business
The entrepreneur and Leave supporter celebrated his 55th birthday in the City just as MPs voted in favour of the Brexit bill. We can only assume that cake was provided by Johnson’s posh baker, Patisserie Valerie.
Is the BBC getting with the programme?
No phrase has me reaching to change the station quite like “Next on Radio 4, brand new comedy…” Normally one can predict with utter certainty that the ensuing gags will be based on anti-Brexit, anti-Tory, anti-American staples.
Read more: Evening Standard editor Sarah Sands will start a new role with the BBC
So imagine my surprise to hear a comedian on Radio 4 having a pop at Remainers last week. This was followed by the appearance of a Tory-supporting comedian on Question Time. It seems the BBC is waking up to the new world order.
Fake news alert…
Fake news is back in the, er, news. Parliament is about to launch an inquiry into what it calls the “phenomena” of made-up stuff on the internet. I sense this is the latest moral panic and I tremble at the notion of state officials ruling on what falls into this category.
Read more: Fake news is troubling – but censorship is far worse
Still, one upside to the supposed crisis is that trust in hard-copy, respected, curated news content (also known as newspapers) may well increase. Demand for this paper currently outstrips supply and the Times is enjoying tremendous growth. Nothing fake about that.
Asset manager one, Bank of England nil
For the second time since the referendum the Bank of England has upgraded its forecast for the UK’s economic growth.
Read more: Bank of England in dramatic upgrade of UK growth forecasts
One person who particularly enjoyed this admission was Toscafund chief economist Savvas Savouri, who sent clients a reminder of his own pre-referendum GDP predictions: “In the days after the referendum we cited a growth forecast for 2017 in the range of 1.8 – 2.2 per cent.” Yesterday the Bank put it at two per cent. Savouri for governor?