In one day the UK became a lesser place.

On November 19th 2017 four things happened which left the UK a significantly diminished country on the global stage, and worse off as a result.

The EU announced that The European Medicines Agency will move to Amsterdam, and the European Banking Authority will move to Paris. Both are located in London’s Canary Wharf, where they employ 900 and 170 people respectively. They are moving before Brexit, and directly because of Brexit.

On the same day, the UK conceded defeat in elections to appoint a judge to the UN International Court of Justice. A British judge has sat on the bench of this court since it was founded in 1946, but this time in the vote the UK came last, in a draw with India, and apparently to avoid the humiliation of losing, withdrew their candidate. This is being widely seen as a reflection of the UK’s diminished international role.

All of this matters because the UK has, in one day, lost its position in European medicine, European banking, and international law. This is a blow for the country’s reputation, and for its ability to influence and be part of global activities in the future.

At a practical level, London is set to lose 1050 jobs from the two agencies, and many of the 1050 people who currently fill those jobs who will follow them out. These are highly educated people, who one assumes have equally educated spouses, and children. So around 2000 educated people, actively involved in international banking and medicine will leave London. Along with them, the UK loses their taxes, their spending, and the jobs for people they themselves employ, and the 36,000 scientists and regulators who visit each year.

Losing those 1050 people has far wider effects on our society, our human capital, and our economy, affecting schools, hotels, offices, shops, and real estate. On top of that, London is losing qualified professionals, scientists, and all the related knowledge, learning, science, and shared intellectual benefits around them.

Finally, the Government appears to have agreed to offer the EU a higher sum of money as its settlement for leaving the EU. This was a major sticking point in the negotiations, and however it is spun, such an offer is a capitulation by the British Government in order to move the rest of the Brexit negotiations somewhere more in their favour. Depending whose words you believe, whether it is the likes of Boris Johnson, who said the EU could ‘go whistle’ for their money, through to more rational politicians who conceded we’d have to pay something, having to raise their initial offer at the behest of the EU means the British government are failing in their negotiations.

These were the things the so called ‘project fear’ warned of, and were either not mentioned by, or were dismissed by the Leave campaign.

The UK today was humiliated and humbled and is a lesser place.