Boris Johnson claims British economy has had its 'Costa Concordia moment'

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/sep/18/boris-johnson-economy-costa-concordia

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Boris Johnson has claimed that Britain's economy is "off the rocks" and compared it to the Costa Concordia, the cruise ship that ran aground last year and was dramatically salvaged this week.

Speaking at the Institute of Directors annual convention on Wednesday, the mayor of London said: "It's fair to say that the UK economy has finally reached its Costa Concordia moment.

"Because after two-and-half years of parbuckling the labour is complete and the rotation has been accomplished and though the damage is still, I think, manifest and the caissons have not yet been entirely drained of debt, I think you would agree that the keel is off the rocks and at last we can feel motion, relief."

He said he had "no inclination to hand back the wheel to the people who were on the bridge when it ran aground", and instead we should "continue on the course we have set".

Observers immediately questioned the jokey reference to the wrecked cruise liner, which crashed into rocks off Giglio in January 2012, causing the deaths of 32 people. Rescuers are still looking for two of the missing bodies that may lie within the ship.

The mayor also renewed his call for a new relationship with Europe, although he said more people in France and Germany understood that "London is an asset for the whole of the EU".

The UK had "every chance of being the biggest economy in Europe", he said, adding that British brands enjoyed huge popularity as global consumers become richer. "Around the world I see British brands catching on wherever people are in the process of embourgeoisement, which we Conservatives support and which is happening all over the place in huge numbers."

With an eye on the national audience, he insisted London's growth was good for the rest of the country. "London is the most competitive city in the whole community. It drives jobs across Europe."

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