Ever since BREXIT vote, and certainly since the melodramatic political events this past Summer in England, the media is full of pessimistic news about the UK, its current situation and its future. Yet, in spite of all the bad news and prognosis, the country keeps going, just like the Energizer bunny that keeps going and going. The UK still has a certain hegemony over its old colonies such as Canada, and Australia, and meddles in world affairs the same away as it did in the past.
The other day, I was thinking about the fact that in spite of the gloom and doom we have read about UK, it is still where everyone from non Western European world wants to be, and that gives the country a tremendous power. For example, when the Jaguar and Rover groups were no longer up to par in the auto industry, Tata from India, and BMW from Germany gobbled them up, and turned them into successes. Yes, the companies are now foreign owned, but they have remained indispensable parts of the UK. When the rich from the Middle East, Russia and China, want to buy property, they first flock to the UK. As Roman Abramovich, the Russian oligarch, realized, it is not beneficial to be tied to the UK. You can lose a lot of your wealth, including your football club. Not to mention all the stories about big property ownership change by and between Middle Eastern Kings and Emirs. Hey you even have American businessmen who love English football teams to buy, and Zelensky who makes only his second visit outside Ukraine since the war to the UK (the first being to the US). Not to mention that among the top university brands are Cambridge and Oxford, far ahead of any other country’s reputation, except for the US.
So in a nutshell, everyone would like to talk about the imminent decline of the UK, but many wealthy people and corporations want a piece of: its real estate, its university education, its car industry, its football teams, not to mention its weapons.
I would hesitate twice before I declare UK is no longer running the world.
Paris, February 9, 2023
Zeejay