Member-only story
Why The United Kingdom Has Economic Problems
The UK’s economic problems are caused by no longer having access to the economies of scale and global financial markets it had during its imperial age before the ending of the Second World War in 1945 and the independence of British colonial possessions in the decades after the war.
These caused economic and financial problems for the United Kingdom because it no longer had access to the world’s greatest land and maritime Empire, fuelling its economy and financial services.
Because of its economic problems, the UK sought to join the European Union under Harold Macmillan, the UK Prime Minister, in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The European Union was then called the European Coal and Steel Community and later the European Economic Area, which England joined in 1973 under Edward Heath’s Conservative government.
According to Peter Zihan, a writer and a geopolitical consultant, when the United Kingdom joined the European economic community, “it was as if the United Kingdom had its empire again”.
This means the United Kingdom now had access to financial and investment markets that could replace the equivalent of the old Empire built in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.
