Andrew Neil makes a perceptive point about the international media…
“The global currency and debt markets have had a ‘down’ on Britain for some time. It’s not clear why. Britain’s debt-to-GDP ratio is among the lowest in the G7 club of big economies. Our budget deficit is on a par with many other major economies. Economic growth is anaemic — as it is everywhere, from the Eurozone to America to China.
I suspect it’s a Brexit hangover. The publications global market players read most closely include the New York Times, the Economist, the Financial Times and leading European papers such as Le Monde and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. All — and others like them — have been relentlessly negative about Britain since the 2016 referendum.
This air of constant gloom has permeated global financial markets. Plenty of influential Remainers have been only too happy to encourage this negativity, if only to justify their anti-Brexit stance. But it does represent a serious constraint — a discipline even — on the Government’s ability to borrow more than it already plans.”