Britain has long been a nation that combines street smarts and smart suits in its approach to trade. We should use our unique talents to take on Trump and tariffs, says Matthew Kilcoyne Forgive me for taking you just outside of the bounds of the City for a second. Not far, but just south of the river.
There stands, on the south side of London Bridge, one of my favourite pubs. Not because of its drink selections (fine as I’m sure they are), but its name: The Barrow Boy and Banker. From the outside, with a simplistic or marxist view of the world, the barrow boy wheeler-dealer and the snobby educated gilded and guild protected banker, should never get along.
But here in London, they rub alongside each other. Street smarts and smart suits that together, in the City’s finest institutions and her disruptive firms, do deals that keep the whole world connected by trade. Trade is something that we’ve built our prosperity upon.
It’s a world that keeps our lights on, food on our tables, gets goods from farms across the globe onto our supermarket shelves, into delivery vans and into our abodes and bellies. Free exchange between free peoples – underappreciated and, sadly, under threat. Tariffs are the talk of the town.
From across the pond newly crowned President Trump has had enough of those countries and blocs that do not pay their way in a world free-loading on America’s security offer, or subsidising their own industries or blocking access to American firms while expecting.
