In this instance, you can unspill a lot of the milk by unwinding Brexit.

The UK won't get back the absolutely insane, sometimes one-sided benefits that they had before Brexit--those are gone permanently.

However, they would get back the unified market and probably arrest the destruction of London as a financial center.

I think if they negotiate a treaty with the EU that is purely an economical relationship that might work but migration and the EU parliament's oversight are things a lot of brits still oppose so it would be like getting back together with your ex that misses but hasn't changed much really. I think the UK basically needa the equivalent of NAFTA with the EU.

I'm ok with London as a financial center being destroyed if it means the rest of the UK gets more resources & investment, and thus wealth spreads more equally.

It's always been wild to me the difference between London & the rest of the UK.

But the pie will be smaller. Much smaller. And there’s no reason to think the average Brit will be getting a bigger piece of it. If anything I’d expect the exact opposite.

That isn't what it means though: it means everywhere getting fewer resources and less investment.

The UK does need to lift up areas outside of London but it cannot afford to do that by bringing London down. Before the pandemic, "London had the highest net fiscal surplus per head at £4,030." [1] If London were destroyed as a financial centre the rest of the UK will necessarily get far less resources & investment.

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxe...

> I'm ok with London as a financial center being destroyed if it means the rest of the UK gets more resources & investment

Wouldn't London becoming less productive mean the rest of the UK gets fewer resources and investment?

Part of the reason London received so much investment was because it was a major source of income. If other parts of the country ramp up economic activity relative to london, they should get more attention.

It's not that unusual a situation. Toronto (with about 30% of Ontario's population) produces some 60% of the province's GDP. Ontario without Toronto would be about as wealthy as Poland, per capita. Perhaps all we're noticing here is that there are tremendous gains in efficiency to packing people in densely in large cities.

Their re-admittance isn't guaranteed.

Large financial institutions and banks are expanding footprint in London, and have announced new office developments after Brexit. So this claim of yours seems to be based on pre-Brexit fearmongering that never came to pass.

I mean, come on, this is easily dis-proven as a talking point. 1 minute of Googling will show it's totally false. [1]

>“London's position in Citi's global framework and strategy is undiminished and is actually growing” [2]

>[HSBC] named three new senior investment bankers within its UK team over the past month as part of an ongoing expansion in the country, according to internal memos seen by Financial News. [3]

[1] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220125006049/en/Cit...

[2] https://www.ft.com/content/7d1be767-0121-45aa-8f94-b3a04ea3c...

[3] https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/hsbc-hires-three-bankers-a...

The UK is still the most finance-friendly country in Europe by far. There were attempts to setup in France etc but regulation is much more onerous and so those plans fell apart quite quickly.