Quora Answer: Is Singapore Leaving Malaysia a Good Analogy of the UK Leaving the EU?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Is Singapore leaving Malaysia a good analogy of the UK leaving the EU?”

This is a terrible analogy.  Singapore leaving Malaysia, is like the UK kicking out Scotland.  Singapore is very much part of ASEAN, being one of the founders.  Singapore’s success is because of its engagement with ASEAN, and being an integral part of the bloc.  I cannot see Singapore leaving ASEAN for the same reasons as Brexiters cite for voting Leave.

The assumptions of Leave voters are many, and most of them are not based on reality, but some fairytale that Michael Andrew Gove and company fed them.  The Commonwealth is not a trading bloc, and Commonwealth nations do not feel a nostalgic need to make the UK a major trading partner over existing arrangements.  There has to be some merit to that decision.  How is the UK going to replace that lost market so soon?

The UK is definitely going to have an immediate contraction in its economy because they lose access to their major markets.  They lose free movement within the EU, and there are new curbs on fund movements which will impact London’s previously unassailable position as the finance hub of the EU.