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After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

nytimes.com

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Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#2

Post by gonvaled »

Why is English so important? You are going to speak it in the workplace, for sure, but why do you need that the people in the street are fluent in English? The couple of sentences that you'll exchange in the restaurant will come through even if people are not fluent.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#3

Post by corin_ »

gonvaled wrote: post #2

Why is English so important? You are going to speak it in the workplace, for sure, but why do you need that the people in the street are fluent in English? The couple of sentences that you'll exchange in the restaurant will come through even if people are not fluent.

One reason is that more people will be willing to move somewhere they understand the language. Sure you can get by in many places without knowing the language, but if you're going to live there for any significant length of time you're going to have to choose between learning it (a time commitment) or not fitting into society. Some people are happy with one or the other of those options, some people wouldn't be.

You also make moving somewhere more complicated. When I moved from UK to Paris, I was fine with work, with socialising, but my French was (and still isn't) nearly good enough to deal with government paperwork, appartment searching, reading up on tax law... etc. Sure, this problem can be solved either by the country making it easier for forigners, or by people moving paying for somebody to help them in these areas, but again its another barrier and/or additional cost.

There's also the matter of local work-related communications. Anything from taxis to tax offices, courier/mail services, etc...

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#4

Post by chha »

gonvaled wrote: post #2

Why is English so important? You are going to speak it in the workplace, for sure, but why do you need that the people in the street are fluent in English? The couple of sentences that you'll exchange in the restaurant will come through even if people are not fluent.

Primarily because not _every_ worker will be moved when a company moves. A lot of the workforce will be local, hence the language requirements.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#7

Post by lordnacho »

There's an ongoing offshoring of certain divisions anyway, something the article alludes to with the Polish IT staff. That kind of thing is Brexit independent.

Michelin stars are not synonymous with having good restaurants. Something like a good steakhouse is not captured my Michelin, which is a very narrow definition of good food. There's also the requirement of variety, which London does extremely well: food from many different cultures, at different price points.

It's also not that clear that Brexit will force finance away from London, which is well entrenched.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#8

Post by s_kilk »

realo wrote: post #6

Well... Actually it would seem that Scotland would really like to become independent and be part of the EU. That article should have considered Edimburg, even if it might have been a journalistic faux-pas.

If Scotland gets its Independence, then Edinburgh is a great candidate for a new London for the finance industry, as it's already got a decent finance presence.

Re: After ‘Brexit,’ Finding a New London for the Financial World to Call Home

#9

Post by yAnonymous »

>Badly hurt by the financial crisis, the Dutch have capped bankers’ bonuses at just 20 percent of their annual salaries — a far more drastic curb than was imposed by the European Union. Several bankers told me that unless the Dutch repealed the cap, they wouldn’t consider moving to Amsterdam. “I’d love to relocate to Amsterdam,” one top executive told me. “But I don’t think we’re wanted there.”

My deepest sympathy goes out to the poor bankers.

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