Britain could be a Eurasian capital

Not so long ago, I was walking opposite Whitechapel Gallery in London in what’s now known as Altab Ali Park. It has been refashioned and turned into a wonderful little museum dedicated to Bengali culture and arts. There are statues, a poem by Tagore and so on. And even a photo shoot for a fashion magazine, with a Bangladeshi model posing for the cameras. All of this was, in its way, very British. And that’s when it hit me: Britain could genuinely be a Eurasian capital. It can take an important step now if it seizes a historical opportunity and welcomes the Hong Kong Chinese.

The logic of Brexit was that Britain sees its opportunities globally – and here, in Hong Kong, is an opportunity to strengthen Britain and shape a new world balanced between East and West. If Hong Kong (as we know it) disappears in Asia, why not have a new Hong Kong being reborn in the UK? It may sound like a crazy idea, but that is what you need, post Brexit: a big bold idea which very few countries can afford to do.