populations with it.
DOES THE DIVIDE DEMONSTRATED BY THE BREXIT VOTE VALIDATE SOME OF MARX’ S PREDICTIONS FOR SOCIETY IN ANY RESPECT? I think it would be very difficult to suggest that what we see with Brexit and the rise of populist nationalism necessarily indicates that Marx was right. I suppose that Marx would have predicted global capitalism to start being challenged by a socialist movement and would be overturned with international socialism- we are a very long way from that. I think we see a polarisation in our politics. I think we see a growing gap between rich and poor. I think we see a growing gap between people with a global liberal vision and those with a more nationalist vision. But, I don ' t think that this necessarily is something that can only be explained by a Marxist view, or that it heralds the end of capitalism. It means that many of the injustices of capitalism need to be rethought and there needs to be an adaptation. But I don ' t necessarily see the inevitability of a Marxist revolution. need to come up with a negotiating position, the EU will need to come up with a negotiating position and over a long period a deal will be struck. The challenge is that the Prime Minister has created a very difficult decision by suggesting that we will take a very hard Brexit option, saying‘ Brexit will mean Brexit’, saying that we won’ t take an intermediary option like Norway or Switzerland’ s relationship to the European Union, but we will be out. This means that the negotiations are going to be very difficult. It is why people like Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, yesterday suggested that Britain will be punished for Brexit and it means that negotiating process is going to very long and very difficult- we won’ t know what we’ re going to end up with for a very long time.
WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NO DEAL FOR BREXIT MAY BE? I think that what’ s going to happen is that Article 50 will be triggered. The UK will
C H I N A MARTIN JACQUES
China is transforming the world. We have never seen anything like this before: a developing country of 1.3 billion people growing at around 10 % a year for over three decades. In 1980 its economy was a tenth of the size of America’ s: today it is over half the latter’ s size and likely to overtake it within the next
24 five years or so. China is now the largest trading nation in the world and a larger lender to the developing world than the World Bank. In a decade or so, the renminbi is likely to become a reserve currency and to begin to usurp the dollar’ s position as the dominant reserve currency. By 2030 it is projected that the Chinese economy will be