Things look simpler from a distance, and the same may be true of the recent change of government in Albion, no longer so chilly (with temperatures above 30 degrees). Surely that’s why we may get it wrong, but, well, sometimes that’s how it goes.
So, with the due apologies offered in advance, as the Chinese say 当局者迷，旁观者清 “the one in the game is confused; the bystander sees clearly,” we offer our modest observations about the United Kingdom.
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The UK wants big ideas, not small-time bean counting. The success of the new right and the lure of the old left are about big ideas detached from reality, either returning Britain to the British or giving more dole money to everybody.
The opposition to those can’t be about being sticklers for numbers. Time for sums and numerals will come, but big ideas must come first.
When Churchill became Prime Minister at the start of WWII, the country was divided and uncertain about whether to continue fighting or surrender. Churchill steered it toward very difficult decisions with big ideas and few detailed plans, which came later.
The next UK Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, faces the same task.
Ripe Big Ideas
From the outside, the big ideas are already there, ready for the picking, as the former London resident Karl Marx might put it.
The country went from being England to being the UK. Now it should Londonize the UK so it could UKize the EU. That’s it. This is already happening, and the UK government should favor it; go with the flow rather than run against it.
London accounts for about 13% (around 10 million people) of the UK’s total population (70 million) and about 22% of its GDP. As a result, London’s economic output per person is much higher than the national average. It is the political, financial, and cultural center of the UK. The rest of the country should be as rich as London. The government needs to draw it closer to London.
It doesn’t make sense to bring London down to the level of the rest of the nation. The direction should be to Londonize the UK, not to Britishize London.
How to do it is not simple, but crucial will be its infrastructure: Trains have to be more frequent and faster, linking London to the rest of the UK.
A second element is to scale up British tech.
The UK has more and better start-ups than the rest of Europe. Reportedly[1], there are about 2,361 AI companies across the UK that have shown signs of high growth, making artificial intelligence one of the best-funded industries in the country. London alone is home to over 1,600 AI startups, making it Europe’s largest AI ecosystem by company count. There are 14 AI unicorns and 33 “soonicorns” — companies on track for billion-dollar valuations.
Across Europe[2] (including the UK), there are almost 11,000 AI startups, nearly twice as many as five years ago. The UK accounts for around 21–22% of the EU total — a remarkable share for a single country.
The UK attracted $13.8 billion (5%) of global AI venture capital in 2025, ranking fourth worldwide behind the US (75%), the EU27 (6%), and China (5%).[3] So, in terms of funding, the UK is nearly on par with the entire EU27 combined. UK AI investment outpaced the combined investment of France, Germany, and Spain in 2025. Still, realistically, the UK needs the market scale and gravitas that come with a continental background. It needs the EU to express its values, or its companies could move to the US or China, or even to the EU, with looser ties to London.
Therefore, the UK needs to rejoin the EU as soon as possible.
Yes, the UK has deep domestic and identity problems, but this could help solve both. Besides, Europe doesn’t make sense without the UK, and the same is true in this world.
Old Empire
The UK is an old empire without the empire. So is France or Germany. But Germany was bitterly defeated in WWI and WWII, and as a result, it was split in two for half a century. France was occupied during WWII and, realistically, was only half a winner.
Great Britain was different. It resisted and built a coalition with the US and the USSR that brought the Nazis and fascists down. It established the framework for engaging the Soviets in the Cold War. It still has some of the highest-quality universities and the most influential media. It has the cultural reach and intellectual attitude to care for the world.
Therefore, its thinking about the world carries less baggage; its interests are more principled than practical, unlike the US, which is burdened with imperial responsibilities and concerns.
The US is a standing empire, every debate is politically charged, and it has a much larger domestic constituency to cater to. None of its cities carries the weight of London, either domestically or internationally. New York is the financial capital, but not the political center. Then there are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, and scores of very important cities, including Washington. But none is all-in-one like London in the UK.
London is less ‘burdened’ by the UK or the EU. Still, this “empireless” imperial vision is important for everybody, in Europe and America.
Burnham might also want to bring a new attitude toward the rich to Europe. Like inventors and innovators, they are important. They can make money for themselves and for the rest of us. If they are too stressed, they will stop making money, and everybody will be poorer. This happened in communist countries, which took from the rich and thus didn’t spread wealth but impoverished everybody.
That is, the left needs to be able to speak to the rich. The right can speak to both the poor and the rich, whereas the left seems able to speak only to the poor, not the rich.
The rich need social justice for their own security and to broaden their consumer market. But the poor also need the rich to live better lives. It’s a very old story. In 503 BC, Agrippa Menenius Lanatus resolved an early class struggle in ancient Rome by talking this kind of sense to the riotous plebs and the haughty Patricians.
Burnham needs to do the same. Is it too simple? Apologies again. With the heat, London seemed a little like Rome, without the air conditioning.
(Thanks to Maria Sisci, London resident, for the conversation)
[1] https://www.beauhurst.com/blog/ai-startup-companies/
[2] https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/almost-quarter-of-europes-startups-are-now-ai-backed-but-the-map-is-patchy
[3] https://aifundingtracker.com/top-ai-startups-uk/
