The Wet Rot Think Tank

The American government is worried about wealthy citizens moving to England.  The Cotswolds have become the Hamptons, and thus London a land of a billion utopias for rich people seeking to escape a tighter government, which is more able to extract their money in tax or coercion.

Enter ‘London has fallen’, a primarily online narrative that the capital has become a crime infested hell hole, with a gormless police that can’t keep property safe.  Shops can’t survive because of theft.  There are now no go zones, where Sharia law, defined as a mixture of Common Law and gang warfare, is formally instituted. 

Of course, the English know American cities have no-go zones.  Words like ‘the Bronx’ have more cachet than Peckham, Balham and Cricklewood.  And that shops like Target close stores in these areas because the rate of shoplifting makes them unprofitable is well known.  And you might be shot during the day.

So why has London fallen?  The answer is about CEOs.  One of the big draws for British firms listing on the NASDAQ or NYSE is their CEOs get paid the same as Americans, because the shareholders are increasingly American.  This sweetener helps pressure British firms to abandon the LSE, because the incentives align for those in charge.  London’s draw is that it is safe: safe from politics, safe from civil war – no doomsday bunkers, safe from crime.

Shattering this illusion, to imply like the States you can’t walk down a street at night, an American would only think of driving, is not aimed at London.  It is aimed at the proclivities of Americans, because it is designed to stop Americans moving here. 

Venus