Brexit's silver lining

Brexit is not all doom and gloom, says Merryn Somerset Webb. There are plenty of positives.

Can there really be no silver lining to Brexit? Does it come with no opportunities of any kind whatsoever? Listen to many of the UK's commentators and politicians and you might begin to think not that the next two years odd of negotiation will result in nothing but misery.

I arrived horribly late to a panel discussion earlier this week and found myself walking into a room of people whose default position is exactly this. Sad faces all round. I found a seat and prepared to be irritated. Then a question from an audience member.Could the rather splendid panel there were several huge brains on the stage genuinely think of no upsides to Brexit?It is rare, said the speaker, for a political event to not have at least a few useful side effects.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up
Explore More
Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.