In Canary Wharf the sun is shining and financial sector workers are drinking beer in the sunshine around Reuters Plaza. Most of them seem to be Remain voters and most of them have been told by their companies not to talk to the press (hence the use of first names).
Lee, Hendrick and Darren work in a bank and have been dealing with the consequences of the Leave vote on the currency exchange markets since early this morning. “And when we say morning, we mean morning in Hong Kong,” says Darren.
Hendrick says markets can be skittish at times like this but that they eventually calm down “The pound crashed this morning, but it’s been recovering,” he says.
Are people buying dollars or euros?
“A lot of people are buying gold,” says Lee.
“There’s a lot of trading,” says Hendrick. “It’s an opportunity to make loads of money. Or to lose a lot of money.”
Is it a good time to make money? “It’s not ideal,” says Hendrick.
Is leaving the EU a terrible mistake? “What is it you said the other day?” Lee asks another colleague who doesn’t even give a first name.
“That people should only be able to vote depending on whether they got five A to C grades in their CCSEs,” says the man.
“Maybe we should have done that,” says Hendrick.
“I wouldn’t have been able to vote so,” says Darren.
At another table, I meet Jason and Dan who work for an engineering company that work predominantly with financial services companies. “I’m pretty pissed off,” says Jason.
For months now the companies they work for have been delaying projects as they awaited the outcome of the referendum and he thinks that some will consider moving now that Britain has voted Leave. “Would you do up your house if you were going to move in the next year?” asks Dan.
Andrew Nothstine an American management consultant didn’t have a vote yesterday, but he stayed up until five this morning watching the coverage and then got forty texts from American friends and family watching the outcome on the news.
“I went to bed thinking it was a Remain vote,” says his friend Jonathan Gunga, who works with the same company. “I’m gutted to be honest with you.”
Has it affected their business? "There's a danger we'll drop back into a recession," says Gunga "But to be honest with you, my immediate fear is more that this legitimises people like Nigel Farage who is a bigot... I'm worried this will lead to a growth of the far right… But the fact is, no-one knows what this means yet."
I find one Leave supporter. “I think it’s fantastic,” says Jim, a bond analyst, cradling a post-work beer. “We’re finally free of the bureaucratic mess that is the EU... and we also have the best weather for ages.”
He understands why many others have voted Leave. “They feel like they’ve been left behind and have no say,” he says, but he says that this is not quite his position. He like Europe. He has a house in Greece, he likes to ski in Switzerland and his wife works in Luxembourg. He even appreciates the common market. He just happens to believe in a smaller non-federal Europe.
Ultimately, however, he doesn’t believe that leaving is the apocalyptic scenario others do, because he thinks there’s an even more apocalyptic scenario coming down the road – the complete collapse of the Eurozone. “We’re no longer on the hook for that when it eventually disintegrates,” he says.
At another table Paul, a trader, is arguing about the referendum with Chris, a structurer who works for the same company. It’s an internecine argument between Remain voters. “It’s more a glass half-full, glass half-empty thing,” says Paul.
“I wouldn’t have planned this, but I see benefits. I believe it could be a catalyst for reform of European institutions and I think we could end up where we should have been when Cameron finished his negations with Europe.”
“I believe we just pressed the nuclear button,” says Chris. “If we lose the ability to trade across Europe, we’ve lost the City.”
But they haven’t lost that today, right? “No,” says Chris. “But it’s unclear how this will work. Businesses don’t like uncertainty, so the longer there’s uncertainty the more they’re likely to go somewhere else. There’s talk of some companies moving to other places.”
Like Ireland? “Yes, like Ireland. Some companies are already looking elsewhere.”
“Some of those rumours have been discredited,” says Paul, although then he says he’s been looking into getting an Irish passport.
Here in the city, the referendum is largely talked about in terms of political institutions and business. Elsewhere, I observe, it’s largely talked about in terms of immigration. “But London wouldn’t work without immigration,” says Chris who is married to an Indian woman. “And without immigration there’d be no one in the NHS, no one building our houses, no-one working in Pret-a-Manger.”
“Look,” says Paul. “Europe is broken and this could be a catalyst to save Europe. Most of the world feel like they’re living in a world of elitism they’re not part of.”
“So says the banker,” says Chris and he laughs. “They’ll be pleased to see the 1 per cent supports them.”
