London Mayor Sadiq Khan on Thursday will blame Brexit for costing the UK economy £140 billion ($178 billion), calling on the government to “urgently” rebuild relations with the European Union to stem the decline.
Britain’s EU divorce has also meant there are 2 million fewer jobs nationwide than there otherwise would have been, including 290,000 lost positions in London, according to research by Cambridge Econometrics commissioned by City Hall that the Labour Party’s Khan will reference in a speech at Mansion House. Half of the total job losses are in financial services and construction.
“The hard-line version of Brexit we’ve ended up with is dragging our economy down and pushing up the cost of living,” Khan will say, according to excerpts released by his office. “The cost of Brexit crisis can only be solved if we take a mature approach and if we are open to improving our trading arrangements with our European neighbors.”
140 in reference to what? What percentage of GDP is that? I don’t like large numbers that don’t have a reference point listed too. It might as well say £1.4e11 because it’s just as descriptive and meaningless without a sense of proportion. A percentage would have been a lot more useful.
You don’t need a percentage to make that number meaningful. That amount of money would nearly fund the US Navy for 1 year. They operate multiple nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines.
Does a number comparing it to a US thing contribute as much as giving a reference point to the UK thing? Comparing it to something outside of the UK doesn’t make it very relevant to UK people. Especially since most people have zero concept of the US naval budget as we tend to lump all military spending together in the US.
I just looked it up and the entire military budget for the UK is $68 billion. “Brexit cost UK twice annual defense budget” offers a much better scope. It hits in a way that a number too large for people to grasp just can’t do."
You do you, boo boo.