AKIRA SHIMIZU of Keidanren, Japan's main business lobby, has a theory about Brexit. The first one, he says, came in 1534 with Henry VIII's decision to break from the Catholic church. This rupture sparked a period of free-thinking innovation that culminated in James Watt's invention of the steam engine 250 years later and the advent of the Industrial Revolution. With luck, chuckles Mr Shimizu, Brexit the Sequel will spur a somewhat quicker reinvention of Britain's economic model.
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