Business needs to retain a sense of proportion over Brexit.
I was reading an opinion piece by self-made millionaire James Caan, CBE, recently, in which he calmly and rationally freaked out about the Brexit result.
He gave the usual soundbites about how many of the people who voted for Brexit are now changing their mind (the figures, by the way, show that only 6% of those who voted would now vote differently, and that includes people who voted to remain), how trade with Europe is going to be adversely affected, about the plummeting pound, volatility in the stock market, and so on per astra ad nauseam.
Not to demean Monaco-domiciled Mr Caan's wisdom, but he is wrong on so many of the issues.
Of course, it's the popular thing to do, amongst remainder dregs, to blame every calamity from the falling pound to the cold weather on our pending exit from the European Union. But let's think about things calmly and rationally without freaking out. Firstly, and perhaps most notably, exit from the European Union means change. Change will always mean uncertainty - that's unavoidable - but that uncertainty is always going to be short-term. Not to leave the EU means we will be beholden to edicts from a more and more irrational Brussels - especially as it cons more and more diverse countries into the Union, whose needs are going to have to be considered and whose influences are going to be felt. The Government can do something to shorten this period of uncertainty, and that is to get on with invoking Article 50 and/or repealing the Common Market Act of 1972.
On the issue of the falling pound, many economists are of the opinion that the pound has been over-valued for a long time anyway, and a haircut was long overdue. The value of Sterling is dependant on many things, not least of which is the relative value of other currencies. The American economy has started moving in positive directions and therefore the dollar, the other half of the cable pair, is forcing the pound to look weaker in relation. Add to which the likes of George Soros and his, now widely known, appetite for world government, for which the European Union was a test-bed, and you have someone who can manipulate forex markets by dint of his great wealth.
Ask even the most maniacally intransigent remainder dreg to paint a rosy future of Britain inside the European Union, and it's a racing certainty he won't be able to do it without resorting to lies or exaggeration. It cannot be done, any more than it's possible to describe a long and blissful life under a nuclear mushroom cloud. People like James Caan are, unless they are woefully mis-informed, cynically jumping aboard the latest bandwagon that most closely concerns their business dealings for the sake of a few popularity points. This must stop.
