Open Day talk on Britain after Brexit

  • 29 June 2016
  • 3 minutes

Students visiting Caius during the two Cambridge University Open Days (30 June/1 July) will be able to leap straight into the cut and thrust of Cambridge debate as Caius Economics Fellow Dr Victoria Bateman hosts a talk on the future of the United Kingdom in the wake of the referendum vote to leave the European Union.

Dr Bateman will give a talk at 2.30pm on both days in the College's Bateman Auditorium, and students will be able to join the debate and ask questions.

In Friday's referendum, UK voters were split 52:48% in favour of Britain's exit from the EU. Supporters of all sides in the continuing debate are warmly invited to attend the free talks (students attending the University Open Day only).

Dr Bateman will argue that Brexit will have severe and negative consequences for the UK, both in economic and social terms. She said: "This is the kind of structural change in the British economy that in 50 years' time we will be teaching our students. We will be looking at the response of the economy and trying to think why we got into this situation."

It was right to accept the result of the vote rather than try to re-run the referendum, Dr Bateman said. But she added: "My worry is that the more optimistic side of the Remain camp are looking for a silver lining to what is a very big cloud.

"The silver lining thinking goes that the losers of globalisation, as economists would call them - the most vulnerable in the system - have now had their voices heard and politicians and economists will now be forced to listen to them and this will lead to a more caring form of capitalism. But I am just not feeling that optimistic. If you look at Brexit voters, there are those who are worried about their jobs and want Britain to loosen its links with the outside world, then there are those who take a more ideological view over sovereignty, and a third group who believe Europe is holding us back in thw world and that the EU is anti-trade.

"In a way the Leave campaign has promised all things to all people, but Leave voters are not a homogenous group. So finding a way forward that will satisfy the 52% majority is going to be impossible. So rather than looking for this silver lining and seeing the view as one of social unity and more caring capitalism, my view is we won't be able to come up with a solution that suits anyone. and having had their hopes built, the Leave voters will then be sold the story of no gain without pain."

Such an outcome would lead to a dangerous situation, she added. " What I am expecting, rather than social unity, is quite serious social division down the road. So not only do we have short-run pain but we don't get the long-run gain that Leave supporters are looking for. Ecoonomic turmoil could be the least of our problems. It is the potential pulling in very different directions of society that could be the long-run legacy."

Whatever your views, do come and share them with Dr Bateman at our Open Days. Potential applicants for Economics are especially welcome.

 

Explore