Lawrence Jones, the CEO of Manchester-based UK Fast writes that there are lessons to be learnt from the EU Referendum campaigns, as the UK faces an uncertain future.
Today we’ve been given more uncertainty and more debate. The foreseeable future will now be taken up with election speculation instead of how we can get our country back on track after months of EU speculation. Who will replace David Cameron, Nigel Farage? Who will take on the responsibility of cutting the umbilical cord, of separating us from Europe? Will we be able to keep trading on the same terms? Confidence is through the floor. It’s not good for Britain.
It’s a big message we’ve sent to the world. It’s saying that we want to be on our own and it’s the exact opposite to how I feel. Business, as anything in the world, should be about collaboration and working together.
It is interesting that there seems to be part of the country with strong schools and strong industry saying ‘stay’ and areas who’ve not benefited from the same level of government investment saying ‘leave’. I appreciate the concerns of people in these often poorer areas but I don’t think leaving the EU solves their problems. Is the new government going to redistribute wealth because we’ve left Europe? I don’t see it playing out that way.
We’ve heard so much about money – about £350million It’s not just about the money we get back, it’s about the legislation, about the culture and about the collaboration. We are significantly better with Europe holding people accountable and maintaining standards. If you look at all of the things that Europe invested in like museums, art galleries, medical research – the list is so long – and the Leave campaign are saying that they have more money to spend, but where will they spend it?
Look at data regulation as an example from my industry; within the EU we are in an incredibly strong position and are held to the highest privacy standards. This helps us to build confidence and to trade in this valuable currency. Personally, I don’t trust our government to keep the same standards and inspire the same level of confidence.
Once again it’s all about the politicians, it’s all about Boris; it’s terrible for Britain and for British people. Is Farage the leader of the future? I can’t think of anything worse! Where has Cameron been? He has given us the opportunity to leave, the opportunity for people to go against the Tories. It seems he conceded long ago.
It’s a lesson for everybody to learn that continuous marketing will always beat sporadic messaging. Farage and Boris simply worked harder. Cameron hasn’t been visible. I think he just thought that we would be safely in the Remain camp and he’s locked himself away.
