When will Brexit negotiations commence, how long will they continue, and will Britain even be able to look beyond the referendum debate?

At the PLSA conference in Liverpool last week, the issue of Brexit weighed heavily on many of the speaker sessions.

On the first day Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the World Trade Organisation, spoke frankly about the difficulties that the country faces, claiming that the process could possibly last up to ten years.

Likening the situation to "getting an egg out an omelette," Lamy also claimed that the Everest of problems to solve may make (Brexit) impossible because of sheer complexity.

The following day Kamal Ahmed, Economics Editor at the BBC, continued Lamy's metaphor, claiming that Britain was the "smelly egg in that omelette", and that Europe would have to be convinced that bringing Britain out would be good for Europe.

Later on in the conference, fellow BBC journalist Andrew Neil continued the sentiment, arguing that with upcoming elections in France and Germany, the migration crisis, the rise of numerous far right parties, and growing political issues with Russia, meant that Europe had "other fish to fry".

Neil argued that it was essential for the country to look beyond the referendum debate to plan how Britain can exist on a world stage in the 2020's and that investment in infrastructure would be key to this.

First published 24.10.2016

neil.blain@wilmingtonplc.com