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Comment by stronglikedan | Hacker News Reader

The path to the better destination is sometimes the bumpier path.

I understand part of the motivation for Brexit was to have the freedom to make independent choices for various laws.

It makes sense in theory, however, if I look at the actual changes where UK has now diverged from EU laws like this one, those changes seem bad for the UK public (in order to benefit e.g. banks), and it turns out this freedom for politicians to do whatever they want somehow results in even less accountability to the interests of British public than the unelected unaccountable Brussels officials cut off by Brexit. Sad.

If the path keeps being bumpy you probably took a wrong turn.

I don’t know what power or leverage a country of 65 million thinks it has over the world. Companies / trading partners can simply ignore the UK now with few consequences. The UK has been on a long, slow decline of global relevance since the Victorian era. I don’t know why that would stop with Brexit.

It won't stop, it will accelerate. UK had special deals in the EU plus outsized power.

The point is it's now just another country on an equal footing with the rest. Unlike the EU members which have to ask the Commission for permission to scratch their ass.

We're certainly not on an equal footing.

Trade deals are about power and taking the one for the EU as example because we (UK) need access to their markets more than they need access to ours then they always had the leverage

It'll be the same with US, China etc.

Even in the trade deals we've achieved with countries like New Zealand we've not been able to take advantage of being a larger economy and we've allowed lamb imports just to get a deal

But they’re not on equal footing with the global superpowers — the EU has significant leverage by representing nearly a billion people. The UK had an outsized voice in EU politics, where now it’s just a small fish in an ocean of sharks.

The UK is basically Mexico now. You saw how well their trade negotiations with the EU went; expect the US and China to walk all over them too.

Zero trolling here. You wrote: <<representing nearly a billion people>> My rule of thumb is about 500M. (Google says 445M.) Where is the other 500M?

Was doing it off the top of my head; was off on the exact number but the sentiment holds. The main benefit of the UK has been that it was an English-speaking intermediary for US companies. The Netherlands and Germany are filling that role as basically every white collar worker speaks fluent English.

The main power lever the UK has at this point on the global stage is the fact that its banks orchestrate and facilitate global money laundering at the intersection of corporations, organized crime and autocratic regimes. And is rapidly losing that role to crypto.

> the EU ... has nearly a billion people

More like under half billion (~447.0 million).

>The UK is basically Mexico now

Except it has a much bigger more advanced economy and a ton of other differences but carry on with the hyperbole.

> The Netherlands and Germany are filling that role ...

Just recently Royal Dutch Shell just switched headquarters to UK from NL, maybe there are some advantages then.

> Was doing it off the top of my head

Any more facts you want to come up with from the top of your head? I think I'll just disregard the rest of your facts then.

My reply is less harsh/dismissive than @hash9. Your last paragraph is powerful. I do think sometimes that I seriously underestimate the financial advantage that UK gains by having "selectively weak financial regulation" (my term). They are a like a Big Singapore, that pretends to be very well regulated, but looks the other way when autocrats want to buy 20M pound flats in Central London.

I expect they will try to extend their advantage in the coming years by using "selective legislation" to encourage multinational corporations to re-home to the UK. See: Unilever and Shell. This is only the beginning in my view.

I wouldn’t count on this working out long term. If this becomes the main advantage the UK has, it just becomes a consolidated target for anti-corruption initiatives. A country like that is also not a good one to live in, so they should expect to lose Scotland, NI and Wales to the EU. You only need London to launder money.

Wales voted to leave the EU

If you knew anything about the EU institutions, you would know that the Commission's role is only to enforce rules that member states have agreed upon but it has _no_ power. Of course facts do not fit with the Brexiters' rhetoric.

Who instigates the creation of a directive? I thought that was one of the roles of the commission.

Every region has been trying to consolidate international power blocks to specifically avoid having to deal on the back of Westphalian sovereignty alone, that is to not be on an equal footing.

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