I am not so sure that Brexit will have such a negative impact on Europe (and the world).<p>I don't like the idea of these Super National organizations that politically and economically integrate people so tightly.<p>Really it's more about having our global society so tightly integrated and efficient. It means power (economic and political) goes to a select few people who get better and better at holding on to it.<p>These crazy large banks that are so freaking tightly integrated are the worse example. A crisis at one bank triggers a global meltdown. We don't want a global meltdown so we bail out the banks, making them bigger and more powerful, exacerbating the problem.<p>The more tightly controlled everything is makes our system so fragile.<p>If the UK is more separated economically from Europe, if one or the other has an economic crisis the separation will lead to less drastic economic crisis.
This article does a great job at capturing the mood in London. I think a lot of Londoners feel a kind of betrayal - when Brexiteers talk about 'reclaiming' the country, to diverse Londoners that means 'reclaiming' it <i>from them</i>. There is no doubt that people are feel targeted and alienated by this kind of discourse - and this very much includes EU citizens who have been witnessing the rhetoric with increasing concern.<p>I particularly dislike the arrogance of the uniquely British 'reassurances' given to skilled non-UK citizens with regards to this anti-immigrant rhetoric, which goes something like "Oh when we talk about throwing out the filthy immigrants, we don't mean YOU - so long as we find you useful". I mean, geez, thanks I guess it's just friends and family who'll get forcibly deported then, nothing to worry about.<p>In general there appears to be a (possibly wilful) lack of appreciation among the Brexit crowd that when you say horrible things about the Europeans and immigrants, those people can actually hear you. I'm not sure how they expect to build an 'open trading nation' while becoming known as the country that calls foreigners scum.
London will fall just like Switzerland, Norway and Iceland have collapsed because they are not in the EU. The UK will become like Somalia.<p>No wait, actually those 3 countries are in the top 5 countries to live in the world. Why do people wish for apocalypses?
Lots of people commenting to say "of course not, article is stupid". Ignoring the fact that the article doesn't really say it will, that view seems unnecessarily dismissive. At the very least, finance is massively important to London and many firms are considering their options. Of course, we don't know yet how that will play out.<p>Having recently moved back after 10 years, the country seems massively behind the times in most ways. Everything is slower and less efficient than in Europe; more bureaucratic, worse technology & infrastructure. Half the service at twice the price and takes three weeks to do anything. I don't feel farming subsidies are going to cut it going forward.
If the EU citizens wanted security of living in London for as long as they want, why not apply for permanent residency after five years and then citizenship? Doesn't seem like that big of an obstacle.<p>Why is London the only prosperous city in England? Does that seem right? Germany has many prosperous cities.<p>And what is it that makes London a world capital so much more than Paris or Frankfurt? Perhaps it is due to something uniquely British? If so, perhaps that's worth preserving.<p>As someone living for years in one of these "global cities," they are all hype. They are modern feudal estates. Look at the mentality of so many of these expats who come into London... For example, the French. Do they treasure British traditions? Doubtful. They want to make their money and resume and go back home as soon as it's feasible. They want to stick to their own enclaves in London. Does anyone else find this odd and unappealing from both sides?<p>How did London become a global capital? Mostly money laundering for the world. They call it finance, but it's really just banking (not a lot of PE or hedge funds), which is really just money laundering when you talk about the top end of that industry. Screw banking and finance, every city they dominate ends up sucking. Leave and we can build a city based on something real.<p>I just saw this in Sydney too. Everyone openly says, the (white) Aussies have sold their property and bailed out to regional towns or what not.<p>It seems abnormal because what all the immigrants were chasing was the place, culture and system those people built.
This is an awful piece of pro globalist propaganda IMO. Good job the online format makes it so hard to read.<p>The EU is totally undemocratic with 7 unelected presidents imposing layers of bureaucracy and regulation on everyone within the eurozone. It has failed to reform and modernize, a key reason why the UK elected to leave in the referendum.<p>Meanwhile Wall Street is locked in combat with the City of London, hence the 'poor old London the loser/ has been tone' of this article. 'Will London Fall?' etc<p>The reality is that the City of London is an entirely separate sovereign state within England, and is also one of the largest offshore tax havens on the planet. (This also urgently needs reform). <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/7c8f24fa-3aa5-11e4-bd08-00144feabdc0" rel="nofollow">https://www.ft.com/content/7c8f24fa-3aa5-11e4-bd08-00144feab...</a><p>As such it is highly unlikely that anything will change around London's global dominance financially..<p>I am all for integration of the peoples of europe, but on their own terms and wellbeing, not as chattels of a large globalist financial entity. Greece, Portugal, Spain and Ireland have all been badly damaged by the EU. We need a more equitable system that is about the people and not profits...
So much FUD it's difficult to know where to start! Just a few observations:<p>1. Londoners are said to be more open-minded, but there's been plenty of narrow-minded sneering about Brexit supporters from Remainers<p>2. There is a deliberately false picture being portrayed that no immigration will be permitted after Brexit. On the contrary - it's just that the UK will be able to exercise sovereignty over its borders once again. Nothing about that means the drawbridge is being pulled up<p>3. No one makes the same criticisms about isolation etc. from other places that don't offer hundreds of millions of people the automatic right to move to. Canada? Australia? You never hear the same bleating about these countries skilled migrant programmes!!<p>4. No one could have predicted what London would have looked like in future even if we had stayed in the EU - let's not forget the EU has a good long list of serious challenges on its plate<p>5. 'You can't live in an island and call it your oasis' said Shirley Watkins, 83 - might just as well say the same about the detachment of Londoners from the rest of the UK!<p>6. Criticism of tabloid press over Brexit - let's not forget the almost unanimous media, political, business and academic consensus that supported remain, and the apocalyptic FUD saying things like the day after a leave vote an immediate recession would start, etc. etc. In that context criticism of one side hints at bias<p>7. '..London is struggling so much now.'. Oh please.. Not from where I'm standing. So the borders with the EU become a little firmer. As if there won't still be millions of people interested in making the UK their home. Who's to say we won't have a more interesting and diverse London with more migrants from outside the EU?
No, London will still be London. Why do people think that suddenly you might have to apply for a visa people will stop wanting to come and live in London?
So this article is about whether London will lose its multicultural appeal after Brexit. Here's an observation about the nationalities of the people cited. Quite a few Europeans, but also:<p>- An Indian-British writer (Nikesh Shukla) who has compiled a set of essays about nonwhite Britons. (In case it isn't obvious, most (all?) European countries are mostly white and the countries that are mostly nonwhite are not in Europe).<p>- Russian house-buyers.<p>- A Canadian who wrote a book about London.<p>- London's Pakistani-British mayor.<p>- A Brazilian hairdresser.<p>- A Japanese sculptor.<p>- Jewish refugees from European persecution a hundred years before Britain joined the EU.<p>- An Indian food entrepeneur.<p>- Somali immigrants at the doctor's surgery.<p>- The Bangladeshi-born mayor of Tower Hamlets.<p>- Bangladeshi muslims at Brick Lane Mosque.<p>Excellent people, no doubt, and worthy contributors to the life of the capital (even the Russian oligarchs). The point is that they don't seem to owe their position to EU membership.<p>It's interesting, the opening lines of the article say 'after the "Brexit" referendum, its future as an international crossroads is far from certain'. But the sources make it seem like London's multiculturalism doesn't owe that much to the EU in the first place.
I sympathize that folks don't like the format how this story is presented. I don't think I am quite as irritated but I do not prefer all this activity while I scroll.<p>I think it's great that NYT is experimenting new ways to capitalize on this medium and not merely just publishing their print stories on the web.<p>...but it's probably best for them to learn from this experiment and not repeat it.
Will we ever have titles that aren't clickbait?<p>Nicely designed site/story. But to put it simply: no.<p>There's simply no reason that London will "fall". Yes the immigration with the EU will cause problems, and yes they will lose a lot of financial industry business but London will continue to exist, and prosper. People will still immigrate to the UK, and people will still live in London. The strength of the city lies not solely as it relates to the EU, but because it is the capitol, and largest city of a long and storied nation that is largely prosperous and innovative.<p>I really wish we'd stop this whole Brexit == UK falls into the sea forever nonsense. Economic problems? Maybe. But prosperous people are innovative and responsive to change. Immigration is not the sole contributor to economic growth or innovation. If it was, than China, Japan, and many other countries would still be subsistence farming.
London has been a "world capitol" ... meaning I guess that it has deserved that description as much as any other large city ... since at least the mid-17th century. Whatever affect brexit has on the UK economy and place in the European sphere I doubt it will fundamentally alter London's status.
London has fallen. Is falling. Slowly thru a century.<p>As the focal point for economic activity of the planet moved from Europe to North America and eventually will move to China.<p>Brexit has got nothing to do with it; there are much larger forces at play.
Right at the end:<p>"She pays $750 a month for a room on the edge of the city with seven roommates".<p>Financialisation of housing is killing the UK. Work has no real meaning because value created is unrelated to fiat money appropriated. The divide between have and have not is massive. Immigration is being used to prop up demand for housing as nobody can pay for a small apartment any more so people live 8 to a small house.
I hope so.<p>The UK has brought the world much pain, sadly there is no omnipresent compensation, like Karma, that make things right again.<p>The only fear I have is that people will now flock to Berlin and gentrify the hell out of it. Shame.
I honestly tried to read this but couldn't get past the format. The rapid changes of background/text when scrolling were incredibly jarring. This felt like a regular long form article made into an "interactive" (in quotes because there is no actual interaction) for the sake of it.<p>Maybe this isn't a productive comment but the format ruined the article for me.