This week Lord Jim O’Neill, former Goldman Sachs economist and BRICS man, was interviewed by the Economist for ‘Money Talks’. Lord Jim said

”I don’t think Brexit is as important an issue for the UK as so many people think. In my opinion, the productivity challenge, the regional productivity mismatch, the regional inequality mismatch, the generational inequality issues – these are way bigger issues than whether we’re in the EU or not. And I like to think of it in the following way: We’ve been in the EU for 46 plus years? That hasn’t stopped our productivity performance seemingly deteriorating relative to others, so as obviously good being in the EU seems, it’s not helping us deal with even bigger challenges. And a weird part of me sometimes thinks if the gravity of leaving causes people to focus on this bigger stuff then maybe it’s not the worst thing to have happened.”