Soft power, hard power and Brexit

Britain is home to four of the world's largest law firms. Our legal industry earns £25 billion a year - £5 billion from overseas. A lot of the business is done with Europe - British lawyers can represent clients in EU courts and interpret EU laws. However after Brexit they may lose this privilege. Clients may also disappear - a lot of the work (44%) is related to financial services. If we lose 'passporting rights' then a proportion of this will disappear.

With the drop in business and restrictions on overseas students meaning fewer studying English law, our 'soft power' will be reduced.

Furthermore, as one of the largest economies in the EU we had a lot of influence over policy, and the EU is the largest economy in the world. That has let us leverage our influence very effectively, granting us much greater hard (military and economic) and soft power than we will have once we are out.

Already our growth is falling behind that of the world's leading economies. We are now in the 'second tier', ranked with Japan and Italy, and by next year the IMF predict we will be the bottom of the league with growth of 1.5% against the US/Eurozone's 2.5%. As a consequence, this year we have already fallen from being ranked as the fifth largest world economy to the seventh.

Economists blame high inflation, weak investment and poor productivity. All caused or aggravated by the uncertainty around Brexit.

Worse, we are squabbling amongst ourselves. In England the two leading parties are both deeply divided. Mrs May is briefed against by her own cabinet ministers and appears unable to hold any 'red line' at all. Her government is hostage to a small NI party with very different interests from hers. In Scotland there is still a prospect of another independence referendum: The Scottish parliament has overwhelmingly voted against the EU Withdrawal Bill due to concerns about a Westminster power grab - the bill grants complete control of certain areas to Westminster, not even granting a veto to Holyrood. Even sentiment in Northern Ireland is swaying towards a union with the south as the border issue remains unresolved - crashing out of the EU will be hardest by far on Northern Ireland.

We are still a nuclear power (though Mr Corbyn will change that if he ever can), we still attract overseas investment (though it has already fallen 9% since the Brexit referendum), we have some of the best fintech in the world (though those firms are being tempted to relocate to the Continent as Brexit nears).

What we lack is a decisive leader, backed by her party, with clear objectives aimed at improving UK productivity, attracting more foreign investment, and encouraging innovation and investment in our own companies. Someone who will at the same time ensure that the wealth generated is shared around rather than captured by the richest 1%.

Once Brexit is settled, however it is, our political parties need to put the current divisions behind them and find that leader.