Regular readers will know that one of my passions is fishing. At this time of year, I spend a disproportionate amount of time reading books, blogs and magazine articles on fishing in preparation for an annual trip to the rivers of Scotland. One such blog this week talked about the importance of the “last knot.” After you have bought a rod, reel and an array of equipment, arranged time out of the office, driven for a day, paid for your stretch of the river you are fishing and the accommodation whilst there, taking care and time to tie the knot in the last piece of nylon that attaches the line to the hook is the difference between possibly catching the fish of a lifetime or watching your line snap and reeling in with nothing.
It would be impossible not to write about Article 50 this week despite the relatively static state of financial markets after the significant act of the UK’s departure from the EU; the major moves having taken place last year when the world was first coming to terms with the referendum result.
Reflecting on the UK’s membership of the EU is, at this point, rather futile; critically, the line that attached us economically, legally and financially has broken. Whether we consider this a moment of freedom from which we will prosper or one in which we are at risk from a plethora of other factors over which we have no control will differ from one person to the next. But what we can possibly all agree on is that insufficient care was taken over the knot that connected us together.