UKH

250 years ago the American colonies were, on the whole, contented and peaceful colonies of Britain. Then, through a series of catastrophic f*ck ups in Parliament, we managed to alienate them, lost the war and the rest, as they say, is history.

If Brexit happens I reckon it's better than evens that Scotland will win Indyref, and despite Catalonia the EU will welcome Scotland into the fold. The more I think about it, the more promising that future looks. Edinburgh - Europe's financial hub, for all the reasons that made London so attractive previously. Who'd bet against Nissan relocating to Silicon Glen? And Scotland isn't short of academic excellence to be a significant asset to EU academia...

I think, if B'it happens, it's better than evens that Ireland will be united within a decade. What a mindboggling achievement of an extreme right-wing British government that would be ... 

... And Edinburgh, Dublin and Frankfurt are all going end up equal or more important than London as financial hubs. Another great Tory achievement.

As was said a while ago, " Who could imagine that the Tory party could achieve in 5 years what the IRA failed to do in a century..."

Yes, I sort of remember someone saying that ...

PS. I see I got a 'dislike' for saying at 16:38 what I thought was quite likely to happen. Supposing I'm correct?? I'm actually starting to quite 'like' this kind of loony 'dislike' because it is so deliciously Pythonesque. You have to wonder what it is that they're disliking? Is it for daring to say it? Or are they saying I dislike someone (probably anyone) for saying they dislike something dislikable?

One could no doubt work out a wonderfully absurd, il/logical chain of people disliking disliking disliking ...

Actually, I fear that what they most often don't like is anything that smacks of the truth. 

Edinburgh - Europe's financial hub, for all the reasons that made London so attractive previously.

That's about the most bonkers prediction I've seen in the whole Brexit discussion.

Care to expand? 

Edinburgh can do at least as well as Dublin and definitely take a chunk of London's business.    Post Indy Edinburgh will be a much more pleasant city to live in, especially if you are European or pro-EU.  Given the relative population of Scotland we don't need that big a chunk of London's financial business to be pretty happy.

That's what lots of smaller EU nations are going to be thinking about London's self appointed financial pre-eminence....

I'll expand for him. 

Scotland will have been outside of the EU for years, and most of the EU business will have already gone to Paris, Frankfurt and elsewhere. 

Edinburgh's population and talent pool is much smaller than London's. 

Edinburgh is cold and rainy and is less likely again to draw in the necessary skills and talent as a hyper city with all the attractions and infrastructure of London.

We have no idea what an independent's Scotland's attitude to regulation, bank levies etc. will be. If they are running a deficit, levying the banks will be an attractive proposition.

There is very little regulatory framework in Scotland and all that will need time to develop and bed in. Another reason why Edinburgh won't take much post-brexit business. 

All that will also need to be funded. Whilst the banks complain enough at the size of the FCA, the UK banking sector has the scale to out up with it. 

What currency will Scotland use? Euro or Sterling?Either way it's far removed from the central bank for either of those. 

There's already cities within Europe which have been benefiting from financial services leaving London, with the 'centre of gravity' currently going more towards Europe away from London, for the swing to move back (sorry Scottish people) towards the capital city of a relatively insignificant country as far as the EU is concerned, might seem to be a UK-centric expectation. I think.

The chances of Edinbugh overtaking London, Singapore, Zurich,  New York, Hong Kong, Chicago, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Shanghai, San Francisco, Dubai and all the rest strikes me as absolutely zero.

I think the Irish are in a good position to take advantage of companies wanting a base in an English-speaking EU country. 

Doubt it. London is a global financial centre. The others are European staging posts. 

Londons preeminence is due to a number of reasons ranging from legal , insurance , shipping in a global context and so on.

There will be some dislocation but not a collapse. 

If Edinburgh is out because it’s cold and rainy, how come London was out given it’s feckin horrible?

Overtaking is unlikely; but you're obviously ignorant of many of the reasons that made London so important.

Do you know what? I can't be bothered to elaborate. Do some research.

My ignorance knows no limits

Ah, the arrogance of a hardcore Remainer!
Why not get off your high horse and enlighten the ignorant masses?

I suspect it's somewhere on the spectrum between dislocation and massive loss of importance. Probably nearer the dislocation end of the spectrum. But just how you think this is tolerable is completely beyond me - because this self-harm is so f---ing unnecessary.

I don't think we want Edinburgh to become a new London. It would be hiddeous! Yes, there needs to be a source of income, but it would totally ruin the atmosphere of the city. House prices are already nuts in Edinburgh, but still ok outside. If it became a massive international financial hub, none of us could afford to live anywhere near it, as is the case now with London.

Hahahahaa, brilliant, you want the wealth but not all the shit that comes with it?!

No, I wouldn't want London's wealth, and certainly not concentrated in one city. London's wealth makes it unsuitable to live in. Aberdeen was bad enough with oil money.

It's no good talking about what you want or what you don't want because none of us, in effect, has any say now in this Brexshit nonsense whatsoever ... nor are we allowed to have any say. 

It certainly feels that way at the moment. 😕

Like Dublin then?

Sorry. I never said London would collapse, simply that it would diminish in importance. I'm getting really sick to the back teeth now with the way Brexiters lie and distort the truth, both of the facts and what other people say.

Our new 'prime minister', of course, is leading the way with this – with horrific success – basically showing everyone that lying and dishonesty pays.

You may well find yourself hoist by your own petard. You may well be one of those who has to get off his high horse (finally) in about 2-5 years time to explain to his supporters (whom you call 'the ignorant masses') just why you did this.

Do you want to have a guess at which country is second on the global list for financial transactions?

Here’s a clue: it starts with a U (and it’s not the UK).

The country at the top of the list also starts with a U and has a same total as the first 6 or 7 combined. I think it’s pretty safe in that position.

It's spreading. We've now got edinburghtom posting completely, historically verifiable untruths about certain Scottish achievements.

History repeating itself?, it's doing a fine job this decade, never mind what the OP is driveling on about.

Where did  I suggest it was tolerable?

London , thank goodness, generates a hell of alot of wealth for the uk and it’s citizens. 

Without its presence we would have to reduce the level of public service we get including the nhs.

and if people think it’s poor now it will be even worse without it. 

If you know anything about Unionism and know any unionists you'll know that that isn't going to happen. I always thought that the Good Friday agreement, with EU membership on both sides as the catalyst and with Paisley becoming friends with McGuiness, was some kind of miracle. And now the fools are putting that agreement in jeopardy.

Edinburgh's population is 482,000.  Zuerich's is 402,000.  Frankfurt is 736,000.  The others are all multi-millions.  Obviously Edinburgh isn't going to have the same size of financial industry as a town 10x or 20x the population.   It doesn't need to.  The whole population of Scotland is only about 5 million, if we attract a few percent of London's financial industry to Edinburgh we'll be happy.

"Edinburgh - Europe's financial hub" was the knowledgable gentlemans original proposition, not supping on the scraps on the floor

Population doesn't really have much to do with this...have you seen Frankfurts CBD compared to Edinburghs?

You're probably right, a bit OTT. But Edinburgh has huge advantages over the other cities mentioned:  GMT time zone, English speaking, good infrastructure, tradition of financial enterprises, educated workforce, good communication links, strong legal system ... 

Edinburgh's CBD is the Old and New Town which are historic areas so obviously no Frankfurt style skyscrapers.  Edinburgh is also half the population of Frankfurt.  A better comparison would be Zuerich: a rich medium sized historic city with a high value financial sector.