An impassioned debate on BREXIT shaped the second plenary of the day at the British Council for Offices (BCO) Annual Conference 2016. Chaired by Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive of the BCO, the panel of Guy Verhofstadt – Leader of the ALDE Group in the European Parliament and former Prime Minister of Belgium, Steve Richards – Chief Political Commentator, The Independent and Martin Vander Weyer – Business Editor, The Spectator, addressed a room over 550 delegates responsible for designing, building, owning, managing and occupying offices in the UK.
‘The EU is a joke’
Former Belgian Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt opened the plenary with a bold viewpoint that ‘The EU is a joke’, stating his view of it as a ‘loose confederation’ that cannot survive as it currently exists. He went on to raise the challenge of what it is that Britain is actually voting for on June 23rd, given the country’s current position outside of the Schengen Area and Euro currency.
An energetic Verhofstadt presented two perceived routes as the only future direction of the EU; a return to 18th and 19th Century nation states, or, a ‘jump forward’ to a ‘proper federal union’. For Verhofstadt, Britain is deemed to have an enormous opportunity if it stays in the EU, impacting change in order for the EU to get ‘the new fundamentals we desperately need’. With a view of Britain’s referendum as a ‘gamechanger’, Verhofstadt posited that the outcome may be a ‘two-speed Europe’, before leaving the audience with a question of whether that was better than ‘a 28 speed Europe’ as he feels it currently stands.
A loss of control?
Turning attention to how the Government is dealing with the referendum, Steve Richards detailed how he feels Prime Minister David Cameron has ‘lost control’. Following the departure of Michael Gove and Boris Johnson to the Leave campaign, Richards saw this as the end to a ‘spell of collective responsibility’.
Richards framed the period around a referendum as unknown territory that has a tendency to make politicians ‘think like they haven’t thought before’ and ‘make mistakes’. The view was that these ‘mistakes’ will signpost the journey from now until the referendum. Whether this will lead to a point of victory for the Prime Minister was raised in the context of the question – ‘what constitutes a victory?’. In Richards’ view, ‘if we remain in, troubles will continue in different ways. If we vote out, all hell will break loose’.
On the eve of a dramatic period in British politics, Richards closed with a view that ‘never has David Cameron risked so much, to gain so little’.
A case of heart over head
Vander Weyer, The Spectator’s Business Editor, opened by asking delegates for a show of hands in favour of staying and leaving the EU. With an overwhelming preference to remain, Vander Weyer surmised his view of the European Union as that of ‘an institution that has failed to grasp its role, place and gravitas’ and one with a ‘weak structure and weak voice in the world’. While he acknowledged a departure from the EU would have ‘short term turmoil’, he called on the withdrawal of the pound sterling from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992 as a similar point in time that was ‘eminently a great change for the better’.
Addressing a lively and receptive audience that were hungry for BREXIT debate, Vander Weyer closed with a call to delegates to ‘vote with their heart’ to see how Britain could prosper on its own.
The BCO Annual Conference brings together the BCO’s membership – a mix of senior figures in organisations responsible for designing, building, owning, managing and occupying offices in the UK. Over 550 delegates are attending this year’s conference, one of the property sector’s premier events.