Don't forget: London as a finance center only came about due to the recognition of basic property Rights! No one invests in warlord-led countries. As soon as it money is made, the warlord will seize it. London's legal system is what allowed people to safely invest, without worry. The network of ships just made it easier.

“Taking a break from hiking.” What a life!

Surely a key factor in Britain's post-WWII financial decline, that Peter doesn't mention, is that we were _massively_ in hock to the US

Peter Zeihan is the perfect example of, if you say something with sufficient confidence and include a few facts then people will believe everything you say, even if most of it is complete crap. For example, London's post-War rise to be a global financial hub was not in the early 1970's as a result of joining the EU, it was from 1979 as part of Thatcherite policies to de-industrialise and build a service based economy; a policy made possible by North Sea oil revenues. Also, there have been 5 Conservative PM's since 2010, not 7. If he can't get that basic fact correct why do people hang on every word he says?

I would add England property rights, to include patents.

Peter's takes on the UK and most things Europe always baffle me. I'm a long-time viewer from the early 2010s so not just a random hater, but I seriously feel Peter just does not understand European politics. Why on earth would the UK destroy itself in a suicidal deal with the Americans instead of rejoining the EU? London is still a global financial centre, second only to New York. How is that exactly "finished" or "over"

What really made England special is that it mostly stayed out of the 30yw. By 1550, Germany started a first, water powered, industrial revolution, with huge progress re mining, metal working and chemistry. The Fugger made a big part of their huge fortunes from mining. The first limited liability stock companies were publicly traded German mining companies in the late 1500s. By 1618, England was a backwater in most fields, except shipbuilding. By 1648, all its rivals had exhausted themselves. The little ice age got worse. Almost half of German population was dead (plagues) or displaced. The little ice age also made the huge water mills and furnaces esp in the Alps unusable for half the year or more. So the water powered industrial revolution was off (though the basic technological know how remained and allowed GER to quickly follow up on Englands steam powered ind revolution later), and England, with a intact population, reasonable finances and less extreme weather thanks to the gulf stream, got to exploit the power vacuum and create an unrivaled empire in the wake of the 30yw.

Peter is so ridiculously confident about whatever string of pearls he fishes out of his backside

Brit here... I'd say yes and no. The decline of London as a financial hub is something you're talking about as if it's already happened - and yet London is still the largest stock market in Europe. London has such relative dominance that finding itself irrelevant is a stretch: I would struggle to believe that that level of infrastructure and expertise would simply relocate in a few short years - but yes, we need to guard against that happening. We Brits were warned that Brexit would trigger the End Times but as a working class pleb I'd say - it didn't really happen. It's more accurate to say that the economic crash of 2008 has never really ended. Also, the EUtopia was one of the most (or the most) stagnant economic blocks in the world. Britain's exports were shifting at about a rate of about 1% a year away from the EU towards the rest of the world, to the point where the British were exporting more outside of the EU than to it. The very agreements that lowered barriers to trading with the EU also raised barriers to trading with the rest of the world... I could go on. My point is, the argument that the EU is the only path to / guarantor of British prosperity just doesn't stand up to scrutiny. Industrial decline, decline in living standards / wages etc. is something that goes back comfortably before Brexit (2016) to the economic crash of 2008 at least. Y'know, when we were part of the EUtopia... Here in the UK, there is very much a feeling that those who control the purse strings are using things like Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine as a smoke screen for good old fashioned greed: pointing to them sadly as excuses for keeping prices high whilst also posting record profits - looking at you, supermarkets and utility companies. A big hope here is that the Labour government will enable a fairer distribution of wealth. At risk of sounding like a vulture, with German industry currently in decline, perhaps Britain could position herself to reclaim her industrial might. Also, you state that America is retreating from Globalism. It sounds like you're heading towards a more Isolationist approach. Okay, but that doesn't mean you're going to keep the same level of relevance on the world stage through wealth alone, especially if that wealth doesn't really act outside your own borders. I think it's a stretch to say that Globalism goes away without the Americans: we just might see more EU, Indian, Chinese and yes, British Destroyers protecting those international shipping lanes in time. America decreasing her engagement on the world stage could be seen as creating opportunity for others. But yeah, I'd entirely agree we Brits need significant change is needed in our economic and industrial model to ensure prosperity but I gotta say... I find myself cautiously optimistic it can be done.

Mr Zeihan is rather wide of the mark on the UK. It really does throw everything he says into question to get this do wrong.

Peter is so utterly convinced of America being the only country in the world with a bright future. With the two current US presidential candidates I wouldn't be so sure.

The worst misunderstanding since his episode on quantum computing a few months ago: European countries thrive when they shake off or avoid control by the European elites. In the last millennium, first it was Venice, then it was the Netherlands (a muddy backwater they weren't interested in until it became fabulously successful - then they took it over and it stopped being outstanding). Then it was Britain: the first Brexit was The Reformation in 1535. The European elites spent 100 years trying to reimpose control, until the English Civil War in 1642. After that, they gave up and Britain became Europe's innovative country. This included the Industrial Revolution, without which 9/10 of you reading this would not be alive (the global population was 10x smaller before Britain invented industry). When Britain was in the EU, it had to follow rules designed to prevent competition to German industry. Right now, it's in the "European elites trying to reimpose control" phase.

Cameron was utterly negligent. He outright refused to allow plans to be created for a leave vote. He offered a referendum where there was two potential outcomes and only allowed planning for one. Then quit as soon as the result came in. Scoundrel. There could have been loads of opportunities immediately post Brexit and a prepared government would have been immediately on them. Instead they just whimpered around what was left of the EU relationship and refused to adapt. They didn't even repeal redundant legislation that was hampering the economy.

This opinion is about 8 years outdated. There were concerns that London would lose its status as the European global financial hub, with predictions that 100,000 finance jobs would move to Europe. However, data from 2022 showed that only 7,000 jobs were relocated to Europe, and London remains a leading financial service hub for Europe and much of the world, particularly in fintech and derivatives. In the end, these fears were unfounded. It seems that money is indifferent to political unions.

The United Kingdom wasn’t known as ‘England’; they are separate entities. The UK has existed as an entity since 1801, when Great Britain (formed by the union of Scotland and England in 1707) united with Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Contrary to the notion that the UK wasn’t impactful, it was one of the most significant global powers. The British Empire, which began to take shape in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, became the largest empire in history by the 19th and early 20th centuries. At its height, the British Empire controlled about 23% of the world’s population and covered approximately 24% of the Earth’s total land area. The British military was a dominant force, with the Royal Navy being the world’s foremost naval power for over two centuries. The British Army played a crucial role in many significant conflicts, including the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II. The empire’s influence extended globally, affecting trade, culture, politics, and economics. Its impact on the modern world is profound, from the spread of the English language to the establishment of legal and governmental systems in many countries. It wasn’t a small Unimportant nation floating around the Atlantic. Your country wouldn’t exist if it was t for a “small island”. 🙄and it wasn’t a hundred years ago. I like your work but you can be very hyperbolic sometimes

London is the world's 6th largest economy with a much poorer country attached to it.

In hindsight the Germans benefited more from their WW2 defeat than the British benefited from their WW2 victory...! 😭 Or am i missing something!?

Dear Peter, it was an English man who invented the longitude clock, that is the crux of navigation, and we brits were rather capable at ship building.

I don't think it is dwindling international power and trade that Brits fear, it is more likely to be record levels of enforced mass immigration causing housing shortages, sky-rocketing rents, low wages, ever-rising house prices and cultural erosion in the form of radical Islamism and institutional wokeism. By the way, we also have woeful public services, bankrupt local councils, a system of high crime/low prosecutions with full prisons and clogged up courts, record levels of tax, food banks, crumbling schools, continual crisis in the NHS, shrinking military, empty shops in all our high streets, homelessness, gangs, illegal immigration, drugs and knife crime. The UK's position in the world isn't really a concern at this point.

I am constantly amazed why the UK does not take more advantage of ''The Commonwealth'' with favourable trade deals and development funding etc. The framework seems to be in place but there is no initiative.

I wonder what Boris would say about "American serfdom" haha

You are a bit off on all of your analysis of UK elections and most of their issues at hand. This election has little to do with what you think were the issues.

Believe it or not you can’t be an expert on everything. Here Zeihan shows his lack of understanding.

Peter Zeihan, the king of the monologue. The amount and depth he covers in 8 minutes is insane 😯

It's crazy that the UK looks everywhere else in the world for trade, except for its biggest and nearest trade partner.

remember about 15 years ago there was that rumor going around in the media that london was replacing new york as the new financial hub.. 🤣

Mate, people were just pissed off with the Tories’ hypocrisy and lack of results combined with a general fear mongering about immigration levels.

This is gold-plated, weapons grade rubbish. The General Election wasn't a reflection of dissatisfaction with Brexit. It was mainly to do with immigration, which is currently running at a net three quarters of a million a year. That is entirely unsustainable, whether in community relations or in infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, roads or especially housing. British growth has exceeded that of, say, France since before we left the EU, and that has continued. Germany has the lowest growth in the G7 - despite being in the EU. In 2022, the UK attracted 8.4% of global greenfield FDI, despite having only 3.3% of global GDP (and 2.3% in PPP term). That is above the level before we left the EU, is second only to the US's FDI, and nearly double that of France and Germany combined. Apart from a dip in 2020/21 (remember the pandemic?) the UK's total trade has grown at the same overall trend rate since at least 2010. UK exports to the EU and the rest of the world have moved in parallel since 2014 at least. Goods imports from the EU have increased slightly relative to the rest of the world in that time. You have to be very careful about these figures because of the Rotterdam effect - goods sent to Rotterdam for transhipment to the rest of the world can appear as exports to the EU. The UK's trade is doing fine, thank you, and with it the City of London continues to flourish. Don't forget that finance requires all sorts of ancillary services - especially law, but also surveyors and technical experts of all kinds - which aren't easily replicated as they're a whole ecosystem. for sure, the UK has problems, and the last government was spectacularly useless at addressing them. so they were booted out. Labour won't be any better, and they'll probably be gone in five years too. The realignment of the British right should, God willing, be complete by then. The total vote for the Conservative and Reform Parties this time exceeded that for Labour, which received fewer votes in England than it did in 2019, when the Conservatives gained a majority of 80 seats. So it isn't all gloom and doom.

7:10 : "The London Financial hub is no more..." BBC 6/17/24 : "London becomes Europe's largest stock market again" Peter, Peter, Peter....

i was watching an interview of Fareed Zakaria in which he said that if Great Britain became the 51st state of the United States that Great Britain would rank below Mississippi in terms of poverty and productivity.

I love, when Peter starts telling stories of hundreds of years ago just to make the point that something is missing now.

Brilliant primer, as a Brit it’s great to hear an outside opinion. Thanks

No, Zeihan, you're wrong on this. The UK didn't leave the EU because of restrictive regulation (although it was a contributing factor). The Uk voted to leave because it wanted to regain control of and end mass non-western immigration. Brit citizens would never voted to leave otherwise regardless of the other issues. The 'Conservatives' ruled the UK like labour-lite, and immigration is higher and less western than it has ever been in the past few decades. They raised both taxes and spending. Moreover, they sabotaged any reasonable plan for post brexit uk. Labor was a protest vote. Won in a landslide with 33% of the vote, hardly a mandate. I dont see a single reason why anyone in the UK would worry about rejoining some of the UE'a restrictive regulatory framework if they could control their immigration and stay sovereign. Brexit was a failure of globalism and an exercise in nationalism, not some sort of bureaucratic and geopolitical shift.

Peter, I’m a UK citizen - clearly the USA holds the whip hand in any negotiations and I’m sure the British respect this factual reality. However, a successful negotiation would bring benefits to both sides. So I ask you, must the USA act in such an overly demanding way? If negotiations are at an impasse then no one wins. (Obviously we need the US more than the US needs ‘us’ so we can not expect to get a deal which is not tipped in your favour- that goes without saying!) But one reason for Brexit was to prevent the EU from subsuming and removing our financial sector. It would be equally unwise for the UK to just simply hand it over to the USA having recently escaped the EU’s clutches. Surely you want the UK to be a strong and potent ally? If you were to insist on taking away our very final remaining ‘jewel in the crown’ we would have nothing left. Why can’t the Americans cut the UK a better deal? Sure, the terms will still be in your favour as we recognise that you are the senior partner in this endeavour. But don’t cavalierly handicap the UK (simply because you have the might to do so.) Perhaps from the USA’s perspective you do in fact play hardball with the UK because you already know that the UK is a lapdog for the USA and will pretty much comply with all your administration/s requests when the chips are down (eg Tony Blair’s unflinching support for George Bush’s ‘ War on Terror’ etc. etc.) So, on behalf of a country which is a clearly a junior partner I can only hope to appeal to your magnanimity and petition, via yourself, that the USA will reconsider somewhat improved terms for the UK. But I guess I’m probably just whistling in the wind… In any event, thank you for your video content. It is often quite inspiring.

I’m not sure it’s helpful to pretend north america is available to be integrated with and provide any benefit to the UK for doing so. I think for that the US/Canada/Mexico are way too troubled themselves. The benefits to them ( because integration on their terms) are smallish and the possible benefits to the UK on those terms are non-existent. I think the UK will have no choice but to reintegrate with Europe on a much looser level and it will become a middling country except that this reintegration will stop it from failing entirely. But the key item is that to do that the UK needs to realise and accept that it is no longer a significant power and it needs to stop pretending to be. It needs to accept that it’s a country like Austria: a former empire that is so irrelevant today as to mostly ignored. Yes the UK is 10x bigger, but not even 10x in importance anymore and that will both be a bitter pill to swallow and an essential step toward making the UK stable and ready for the future.

Peter delivers better analysis while hiking than a consultancy firm could produce in a month for $300k

EU didn’t exist in the 1970’s, you mean the EEC

I'd be quite happy if we were a middle power. I never saw the need to be boastful or proud about being born in a place. We need to massively up our local energy generation (wind and nuclear), and grow more of our own food. Then we can be left alone on our little island.

Almost a decade after they voted for brexit most of them still seem to be in denial about these relatively basic facts

Great overview Peter of the UK's election and ongoing woes. When the UK joined the "EU" in the 70's British people were told it was a "common market" not a political union which it became. London and the square mile were the big winners at first but the introduction of the euro currency and the ECB following the Maastricht treaty of 1991 would to some extent undermine London as a financial centre. As the political union progressed British taxpayers were continually funding the EU only the Germans contributed more. UK taxpayers were going on their summer vacations seeing fantastic European infrastructure projects funded and paid for by the "EU" knowing full well it was their hard earned cash that was funding them. Meanwhile British infrastructure projects never came. The "euro monetary system" was also mired in controversy in 1992 with UK interest rates rising 5% in hours as the UK Tory government tried to tie itself to the exchange rate mechanism, the UK never joined the euro currency. Greece joined the euro when it clearly shouldn't have and has been bankrupt ever since. The Greek people were scapegoated by Brussels politicians for the inadequacies of the euro project. On the one hand the British government were promoting the EU to the British people but refused to join the euro currency - talk about mixed messages or was it to protect the city of London? Finally the unchecked free movement of labour from low income countries to more affluent ones which helped cause wage stagnation and the increase of personal debt in the UK produced discontent with Brussels and the Tony Blair Labour government. Europe is a fantastic place. As someone who voted to leave the undemocratic political project of the EU based in Brussels and Strasbourg whose monetary system is very suspect I am glad we're out of it. The very inconsistent and undemocratic project is built on sand IMO.

LIving in the UK it isn't clear to me that London doing well out of the EU didn anything at all for the rest of the country. The entire economy and political system was skewed to benefit a few bankers and the rest of the country was ignored. Let a thousand flowers bloom and see where we are.

From the Uk I would say that was a broadly reasonable analysis except for the post war bit where you missed the US profiting at UK expense.

LOL! “The UK is the simplest to explain….lets start several hundred years ago.”. Proceeds to not mention immigration to the UK and its Government Benefits “Industry” ONCE. Totally tone-deaf to recent UK politics.

Becoming a servile state under the rule(s) of the USA seems extremely unattractive. The UK will have to restore some cooperation with the rest of Europe again. General concensus among the brits is the Brexit is a failure. Rejoining is possible, but will need a new generation of politicians, so maybe the 2040's. Meanwhile I hope the new government will have the courage to take the first steps to undo the damage Brexit has done.

I'd be taking a break from hiking too. Look at that hill.

You're off-piste here a bit, Peter: Since leaving the EU, the UK has enhanced trade deals with Japan, Singapore, and Ukraine and is negotiating improvements with Mexico, Switzerland, Israel, Turkey, and South Korea. New trade agreements have been established with Australia and New Zealand, and the UK is nearing completion of FTAs with India and the Gulf Cooperation Council. The UK has shifted towards high-growth markets in the Indo-Pacific region, exemplified by joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in 2023. The Department for Business and Trade resolved 192 trade barriers in 79 countries, generating significant revenue. Post-Brexit, tariffs have been removed on 47% of product lines entering the UK, making goods cheaper. Additionally, improved salaries and working conditions for lower-paid workers have resulted from tightened labour resources following the end of the Freedom of Movement.

I'm British, to say that this all came down to Brexit isn't true. We've had to put up with a prime minister (Liz Truss) who nobody voted for, who completely tanked our economy overnight, then we had all the scandals during the pandemic over PPE and Partygate: people couldn't visit their dying relatives in hospital, but the Tory politicians who brought in lockdown restrictions were partying in Downing Street. Rishi Sunak, again, himself was never voted in by the people, just by a very small group of Tory party members. There was a palpable anger around the entire UK towards the Tories for a very wide range of issues, Brexit was definitely one of them (i voted remain) but certainly not the only one.

We became a EU and global financial hub due to BOTH Thatcherite deindustrialisation and being in the EU. The City has more than doubled its value addition to the economy since we joined in 1973. Go to Crystal Palace and look north. The City is now bi-polar, the traditional City and the Isle of Dogs. That would not have happened without both inputs. And since we left the EU £2.3 trillion of Euro Derivative trade left the City in May 2021 for the EU and Wall St for ever! Essentially the change has begun. Zeihan is correct in his overall analysis.

Given that the rest of the west is in a massive turmoil, the UK is now the most stable and sensible person in the room. Like it or not the capital will tell the tale. Lets see...

As a Brit I commend you on your analysis of out situation it is revealing in its basic simplicity that we as a nation, voted to cut our own throats as far as the ability to generate money globally like we have in the past. There are too many people who voted for Brexit, that thought they could go back and live in the 60s and 70s where a married adult could feed a family of five, pay a mortgage and still go on holiday to Spain twice a year. We as many Americans, have too long been contemplating our own naval at the expense of a shrinking economy and a shocking swing to 30s era political viewpoints.

Interesting but some of your history is way off. USA did not force British to give up Empire. May have been what your education system taught you. Unfortunately they lied to you. Canada/Australia/New Zealand all became independent nations in 1931. Note all at same time. UK most powerful then USA just another potential power. Like Japan China Nazis Communists etc. india was promised independence ar start of ww2 and to emrecieve it at wars end. while usa was providing weapons to both sides. I am unsure what you mean by USA forced UK. How could they achieve that force??

Cue the jingle, “The best part of waking up is Peter on your screen.” 👊🔥

2:38 - First? No, that was the Dutch.

So much inaccuracies. Zeihan is assuming that the EU and UK have cut off everything. London is still the predominant services sector for the entire EU, there is a free trade deal between them. Bizarrely, that has increased after Brexit. There is a general uncompetitive space in Europe that both the UK & EU suffer from.

This was damn interesting.

It is worth remembering that part of brexit was london trying to opt out of European banking regulation.

Meh. I think we’ll find a bit of a middle ground tbh. Labour loves the EU and Europe and will almost certainly have a better relationship with the continent than the Tories did. I can see us getting very close to the EU and basically being a member of it again without actually being a member. Sort of like Norway or Switzerland I guess. This will cause division at home and may end up costing Labour, but the EU and remain voters here will like it. I doubt we will fully integrate with NAFTA either. You can keep pretending otherwise, but US food standards are appalling and there’s no way we would just let everything leave London for New York without getting anything in return.

Britain didn’t vote for labour becuase of their manifesto, it was a protest vote against conservatives. UK isn’t moving left at all this is just temporary until next election.

Hmm, not quite sure what to make of this. The post war economy of the 50's and 60's boomed. UK living standards improved faster during this time than at almost any point since, yet you claim they fell? You also paint a picture of growth and prosperity starting in the early 70's as a result of joining the EU. I can tell you from both the stats and lived experience, this is completely wrong. The EU is a protectionist trade block. It's designed to protect European producers from cheap foreign goods, especially agricultural. From the day we joined food price inflation went through the roof. We cut ourselves off from the cheap food produced by former colonies. Australia and New Zealand were particularly badly hit. Furthemore the car industry was almost wiped out by the German and French competition as joining removed all trade tariffs. The 70's for us was a decade of misery, strikes and economic decline. It was not until the 80's when Thatcher changed the economic model of the country and deregulated financial services that things recovered. The boom she unleashed continued all the way until the GFC in 2008. That is when real living standards stagnated. I've always wondered how accurate your analysis is. This is starting to make me question your views on China...

We didn't join the EU in the 1970s, we joined the EEC which was a trading bloc. It morphed into an insidious dictatorial empire. That's why we voted to leave.

After Peter's takes on the U.S. elections, I take everything he says about any election with a rock of salt.

Totally ignorant. Most of the city of Londons business is not EU funds, europe already has many financial centers. The city of london is dominated by specialist insurance and wealth managers that Europe cant offer

"...even the names of countries, and their shapes on the map, had been different. Airstrip One, for instance, had not been so called in those days: it had been called England, or Britain, though London, he felt fairly certain, had always been called London."

It was WW1 that broke London’s role as the financial hub of the world and New York took its place. To me, that fact, alongside the end of four hereditary dynasties, was the most significant consequence of bad decisions all round in 1914.

Peter, Your personal success and joie de vivre is the best revenge over the ugly jealous trolls. Keep up the good work. Your fans await your Delphic proclamations.

The GFCI 34 ranks London as the second largest Global financial centre (return from the drop due to Brexit) narrowly behind New York. The level of confidence this guy has despite getting 95% of what he says completely wrong is remarkable.

Good analysis Peter - as with most of your content it is thoughtful, thought-provoking and well presented. As a Brit I cannot be as pessimistic as you about our future. Britain retains an astonishing amount of soft power, be it historical or cultural, giving us an alternative to financial industry dependence. I agree the new Labour administration needs to be radical, or certainly creative, to rethink how we can retain the place in the pecking order we have become accustomed. A lesson that most of the world has been taught over the centuries is never count us out.

Oh my god. What an embarrassment. He might know geopolitics, but is apparently clueless about the UK.

While Labour have a promising industrial startegy with plans for a National Wealth Fund and a publicly-owned energy company, there's not much capital being put behind them. Also they're adamantly against a return to the European single market.

You’re taking a break from the hiking? I don’t believe it

I always find your videos informative until you talk about the UK then I realise you're over generalising everything 😂

Zeihan has it backwards: one of the reasons for Brexit was that the Europeans were squeezing London in an attempt to draw off its power as a financial centre to Paris and Frankfurt. The problem has been that the Tories were too timid and too incompetent to seize any of the opportunities that arose after Brexit, once Britain was free from an unequal, crushing, subservient position within the EU..

We would prefer to fall knowing we fell on our own terms. 🇬🇧

I live in the UK, you can physically see collapse happening here

Enjoy our chlorinated chicken, Limeys.

I don't know why Great Britain left the Commonwealth Preferential Trade scheme. The economies of many of the countries were complementary. Australia and Canada provided raw materials for Great Britain and consumer markets for finished goods. Great Britain was always going to be competing with France and Germany in the European Common Market. Same way Great Britain would be competing with the US in finished goods in a Free Trade Agreement between the two

I'm not really sure what he is saying here. The numbers don't seem to back what he is saying. Brexit happened, then immediately COVID, they recovered healthily (like WAY more than pre-Brexit), and stalled on par with the pre-Brexit track. There does not seem to be the cause-effect that he's saying as the reason for the massive shift.

And worse, they stopped making good music.

Very interesting video. Thank you Peter et al.

So, the UK has two choices - become a US colony, or become a poor, insignificant island. As the former has already begun, with the UK spending all its meager military resources and puny fleet in conflicts on the side of US interests, I would say both will happen, and there is a causality between the two.

I'm English and yes we the UK are are done. The rich rule the waves now 😢😅

I haven't read the Labour manifesto yet, but so far both Tory and Labour have been on the wrong priorities, while what UK should be doing is really full reindustrialization. They left behind most of their industrial assets in the European continent, and UK finance network is cutoff from EU too suddenly with no replacement. UK have made progress with trade deals, but that's not enough. UK need massive reindustrialization.

I thought this video hit the nail on the head as far as the UK is concerned. I would add, fascism waits in the wings, when Labour fail.

This is a good summary but it leaves out one point which I feel important, which is this: Thatcher's restructuring of the UK economy as a response to the post-war slump in the UK economy was away from the sort of industries which were found in the provinces (manufacturing, mining, etc.) towards the sort of things which are centralised in London (finance, the service industry). This has made London very rich, but hugely impoverished the rest of the country. Whilst there is generally a left/right split between London and the countryside that's present in any Western country, and this may account for the remain/leave split we also see in the 2016 voting pattern, there seemed to have been a feeling amongst Leavers that the country was being screwed over and impoverished by Brussels and that leaving the EU would free up loads of money and immigrants would stop coming in and taking everyone's jobs etc. etc. (and the Leave campaign absolutely exploited this belief: see the mythical "£350m a week for the NHS"), not that they locally had been impoverished by national economic policies - i.e., they seemed to have felt that if we simply left the EU then magically their town would be restored, all the industry and jobs would come back, and so on. They have been slowly, unfortunately, undeceived, if they have any brains at all. And thanks to their ignorance we're all much poorer now than we were before.

As a Brexit voting Englishman I’d say you’re off on a few things. 1/ London still is a powerhouse of a financial hub. New York is the only larger centre. And after the hard left being voted in because of the French elections a lot of those that relocated to France will be coming back. 2/ We had no issue with being part of a EU Trading Group which was what we entered in the 1970’s. But it morphed into a political union where laws and regulations were ratified and directed from the EU parliament very often. Would America be happy with NAFTA if Mexico and Canada had political sway over the United States, even a small amount..Didn’t think so.

Sorry, Peter, but you are wrong on many points here.

I always enjoy listening to your take on these topics. I am also very jealous of the natural splendor you get to hike in with each video.

Forming an economic alliance with Australia, New Zealand, and Canada is a smart move for the UK. Each country has unique strengths-financial services, natural resources, agriculture, and manufacturing-that complement each other. Instead of trying to lead based on past influence, the UK should aim for an equal partnership that benefits all. Our shared cultural ties and common law system make this alliance a natural fit. As developed nations, we can ensure that trade benefits our citizens fairly, unlike the current trend where jobs are outsourced to poorer countries to boost profit margins for the wealthy. By boosting trade within this group, we increase our leverage in negotiations with the US and EU, reducing our dependence on their markets and protecting our interests. This alliance would help us avoid capitulating to external pressures and create a stronger, more resilient economic bloc.

OK . This is absolute rubbish. The reason the Conservatives lost so badly in the election was because a new political party called REFORM emerged and stole loads of the conservative votes. Reform scored 15% of the vote as opposed to the Conservatives on 22%. The right of centre vote was split in two. Labour won the election with an incresed vote of only 1.5% (33.7%) than that which they achieved at the last election(32.2%) and LOST to the Conservatives which attained an 80 seat majority. Labour won with a 412 seat majority! This election had NOTHING what so ever to do with leaving the EU. Comparable to the rest of the EU, the UK economy is doing OKish, whereas Germany, the EU's largest economy, has been in recession for much of the year. Infact very recently , the UK has emerged as the worlds 4th largest exporter! The recent election also had a very low turnout of 60%. This means that Labour are in power with only 20% of the population voting for them. The Conservatives were in power for 14 years and as is the case with UK politics, people wanted a change. The result of the election is therefore highly distorted and it is very unlikely that the next election will return a similar result. Another reson that Labout had such a high seat count is that the far left SNP were crushed in Scotland after implementing ''Californian'' policies such as sending male rapists to womens prisons and attempts to expand ''hate crime'' legislation. Those SNP votes switched to Labour. Don't be fooled into thinking that this resul makes the UK a ''socialist'' country like France. Britain is a center right nation. Peter is spinning this election to look like it had something to do with the left leaning EU. It clearly doesn't.

Britain has a few things in the works already, one of which is to become the leading producer and exporter of fertiliser thanks to a new mine for an enormous Polyhalite deposite. Another thing which Britain is looking to expand is their tourism industry, as there are several new major tourist attractions opening soon such as a Universal Studios theme park. We'll survive, no matter how much the politicians try to screw it up.

A LOT of UK voters abandoned the Conservative Party due to insanely high levels of immigration, which they’d promised to reduce for the past 14 years, but allowed to increase exponentially, resulting in significant changes to demographics/culture. Despite its huge majority the Labour Party received fewer votes than it did in the previous election!

I think it's pretty premature to state that 'London as a financial hub is over'.

Will the EU and the UK have to get back together if Germany and Italy economically weaken due to demographics as you've previously talked about?

The UK coming out of the European Union will increase its ability to trade internationally. British made goods are still accepted world wide. British exports are set to rise especially in the Pacific countries with their emerging economies e.g. India

I take everything peter says with a grain of salt ever sense he said Christina Freeland was doing a great job in Canada. Completely divorced from reality.

You forgot the leg up that the UK had in North Sea Oil. It allowed markets to resurge as much as joining the Common Market. But you are right that the UK will just turn into Airstrip One eventually.

Thx Peter, that was a depressing start to the day. 🇬🇧

200 years ago, England beat Napoleon. It financed the entire European war effort. And Londons reach is global. it's never been just Europe. Its litterly the centre of the world.

You forget London Saps is not a financial centre like New York. London has a lot of small "family officers" handling old money. It is also a cleaning shop, cleaning dirty money from elsewhere, and with the onshore banking centres like the Caymans, it brings a lot of money in that way. One thing I notice about Zeihaqn is it always comes back to "Oh America is great, it's a rising power again and everyone will need to eat chlorinated chicken" The bias is palpable

Excellent assessment of the complicated realities of global (and nation-state) economic dynamics, due to the unintended consequences of political party policies