Destroying the last great UK industry

The "City of London" accounts for around 17% of the UK's GDP and the EU hate the success of the "City". The "City" works because it nicely splits the time zone difference between New York and Tokyo, because the local language is Englisha and because regulation is light. The "Big Bang" of 1986 turned the "City" into an economic powerhouse and one that attracts the brightest traders and "quants" from all over Europe, the US and Japan. Walk into a City Investment Bank and you will see American, French, German, Swiss and, if it is a Japanese institution, Japanese bankers all working ridiculous hours and earning money that they spend mostly in London and the rest of the UK. The French and the Germans have long envied London's financial clout and resent the fact that Frankfurt and Paris are not in the same league. So the EU plans to destroy the competitive advantage of "The City" under the guise of fairness but really out of jealousy. This will not aid Paris and Frankfurt, as the business and the bankers with their very portable talents will instead move to New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo.


The Telegraph reports that:

"A confidential document prepared for the gathering in Brussels finds the "short-term" pay structure of modern capitalism has become deformed, causing firms to take on "excessive risk" without regard to the interests of stakeholders or society.... ministers are eyeing curbs on stock options, bonuses and golden parachutes.

The move is a clear sign that the EU noose is tightening on bankers, funds and corporate elites that have enjoyed light-touch regulation.

Today's meeting is being held under the auspices of the Eurogroup, the quasi-official club of eurozone finance ministers. The forum excludes Britain and free market allies from Eastern Europe.

Shutting out Chancellor Alistair Darling enables Berlin and Paris to create a head of steam behind possible legislation that could undermine London's competitiveness as the world's leading financial centre....

Ruth Lea, director of Global Vision, said critics of the City have seized on the credit crisis and Britain's current travails to ram through changes that extend EU power over economic policy.

"Brussels has been waiting for this moment. It is typical that they should hold the meeting in the Eurogroup so they can lay out all the groundwork in advance. It is the classic thin-end-of-the-wedge method. None of these new proposals is going to help Europe: they will simply drive business to Hong Kong, Singapore and the States," she said."

The EU socialist agenda moves on apace and we cannot stop it, the only solution is leaving the EU whilst we still can; and that is probably within the next two to three years.