Ira Stoll writes for the Washington Free Beacon about the British government’s questionable priorities.
Talent and capital are fleeing Britain so fast that the Labour Government is announcing sanctions against Israel.
Rokos Capital founder Chris Rokos, reportedly the third-largest taxpayer in the U.K., is leaving Britain for Greece, Bloomberg News reported. Other billionaires who have left the U.K. recently amid government plans for tax increases include Lakshmi Mittal, Sharvin Bharti Mittal, Guillaume Pousaz, Nassef Sawiris, John Fredricksen, and Michael Platt.
Platt, who left for Switzerland and the UAE, declared, “the UK is no longer a serious contender as a jurisdiction in which to do business.”
Fredericksen, who decamped to Cyprus and the UAE, said, “Britain has gone to hell.”
The bond market views British long-term debt as increasingly risky, sending long-term government borrowing costs soaring to the highest levels since 1998, nearly 6 percent for the 30-year gilt.
The news about Rokos means that four of the five originally London-based founders of the asset management firm Brevan Howard will have left. The firm was named for Jean-Philippe Blochet, Rokos, James Vernon, Trifon Natsis, and Alan Howard. Howard and Blochet moved to Geneva, and Natsis reportedly relocated to Abu Dhabi.
Instead of focusing on stanching what Bloomberg describes as a “wealth exodus,” British politicians are pretending as if their country is still a colonial power in territories it took over from the Ottoman Empire after World War I. The British foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, rolled out a series of new sanctions, including a ban on British arms sales and “other exports that materially contribute to the occupation.” Miliband also announced “an import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied territories,” while making clear that he defined “the occupation as a whole”—by which he means allowing Jews to live in Jerusalem and its suburbs—as “unlawful.” He also promised, “We will take action against specific companies and individuals who provide services such as construction, infrastructure, financing, or real estate for settlement expansion.”
