Brexit Britain — More good economic news. It just keeps getting better for the UK.

Graham Charles Lear
3 min readJan 21, 2020

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IMF chief Christine Lagarde

In a spectacular double-whammy yesterday, two reports were released which put paid to the last vestiges of pre- and post-Brexit Project Fear.

London’s status as the financial capital of Europe looks secure: Over 1,000 EU firms plan to open UK offices

PLUS — IMF latest forecast shows the UK growing faster than Eurozone and even Germany

“We gravely misled the British Public,” said former Chancellors Osborne and Hammond, in my dream I had last night.

First. Over 1,000 EU Banks and financial services businesses plan to open UK offices

Following a freedom of Information request to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) by financial consultancy Bovill, it was revealed yesterday that some 1,400 EU-based firms have applied for permission to operate in the UK after Brexit, with over 1,000 of these planning to establish their first UK office.

Amongst the total of 1441 applications are those from 134 EU/EEA banks, which will either be setting up offices in London for the first time or boosting their current UK presence. Financial firms planning to move to the UK span all sectors in financial services. As well as EU banks, these include EU asset managers, insurers, exchanges and fin-tech firms.

Second, IMF finally puts the UK ahead of Eurozone and Germany, in the latest economic forecasts

Yesterday the pro-EU International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the latest update to its economic forecasts for growth in the world’s economies. It did so just ahead of the start of the 4-day meeting of world leaders and financial corporations at Davos in Switzerland which starts today.

These figures clearly show that the IMF expects Brexit Britain to outperform the economies of the Eurozone and Germany, even during the undoubted turbulence following the UK’s final departure from the EU.

Hey Ho Remainers, hate to tell you I told you so. No just kidding I don't hate it at all ………………… I AM LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT.

The first report uses data provided by the Financial Conduct Authority and the second is from the International Monetary Fund. Remainers were delighted to use information from such organisations when they promoted Project Fear. I am sure that these Remainers must now be delighted to have been proved so wrong by the subsequent and positive facts, figures, and events. Perhaps they might even apologise to the public…. No just kidding again they won't.

The IMF was one of those organisations which were happy to play its part in Project Fear prior to the EU Referendum in 2016, urged on by then Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and the rest of the Cameron Government. This continued after the Referendum under the Theresa May Government and her new Chancellor Philip Hammond, as the Establishment attempted to overturn the largest democratic result in British history.

Until late last year, the IMF was led by the arch-europhile Frenchwoman Christine Lagarde. In November Ms Lagarde was appointed President of the European Central Bank. This is despite having been found guilty of negligence by a French court in a massive national financial scandal in 2016.

Yesterday the organisation she led for eight years — the IMF — was forced to revise its figures again, although of course it never expressed this as eating humble pie. Instead, we simply have their plain forecast figures which I am are happy to bring you. The IMF says that the UK will outperform the Eurozone for the three years from 2019. Who would have thought it?

[ Sources: Financial Conduct Authority / Bovills Ltd | International Monetary Fund ]

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Graham Charles Lear

What is life without a little controversy in it? Quite boring and sterile would be my answer.