{"id":13535,"date":"2016-10-12T17:45:57","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T16:45:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/?p=13535"},"modified":"2017-02-20T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-20T11:41:04","slug":"soft-brexit-flying-pig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/soft-brexit-flying-pig\/","title":{"rendered":"Soft Brexit \u2013 flying pig"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a lot more talk of hard and soft Brexits this week \u2013 with the Prime Minister promising more Parliamentary debate<\/a> and retailers warning<\/a> of price rises and tariffs when the UK leaves the EU.<\/p>\n

But a \u2018soft Brexit\u2019 \u2013 in the sense of membership of the single market outside the EU – is simply not an option. The fact this is not understood illustrates the ignorance that has characterised the whole debate.<\/p>\n

\"graffiti-386495_1280\"The single market is the core of the EU.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have one without the other. The single market is what the EU created 25 years ago as a natural progression from the European Economic Community (EEC).<\/p>\n

Common to single <\/strong><\/p>\n

The EEC was a \u2018common market\u2019 where countries didn\u2019t levy customs duties on each other\u2019s goods and services. \u00a0Then in the early 1990s, its members voted to upgrade the common market to the \u2018single market\u2019 \u2013 championed by Britain incidentally.<\/p>\n

This meant moving from tariff-free trading to having a single economic zone with a single rulebook and a single set of standards. It meant replacing what were then 12 sets of national regulations \u2013 now 28 – with one set of EU ones<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This had many benefits. It made life simpler for companies who no longer had multiple regulations to deal with. It meant EU citizens enjoyed consistently high standards \u2013 for example for the safety of children\u2019s toys or the labelling of medicines.<\/p>\n

And it was fairer \u2013 everybody playing to the same rules. For a single market to work, you can\u2019t have one member putting up barriers that others don\u2019t. It wouldn\u2019t be single any more. That\u2019s why it was linked to the \u2018four freedoms of movement\u2019 \u2013 of goods, services, capital and \u2013 yes – people.<\/p>\n

Rules of the game <\/strong><\/p>\n

In other words, the things that Brexiters hate so much \u2013 the UK having to follow EU-wide laws and accept free movement of people \u2013 are integral, defining elements of the single market. \u00a0Those EU laws \u201cmade by unelected bureaucrats\u201d that the Brits have been conditioned to hate are nothing more than the rules of the European trading game.<\/p>\n

To say you want to be in the single market without EU law or freedom of movement, is like saying you want to play in the World Cup with a team of 25 and no handball rule.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t have what Theresa May called \u201cthe authority of EU law in this country ended for ever\u201d and still observe EU regulations like the rules to control mobile roaming charges<\/a>.\u00a0She knows that.<\/p>\n

Access \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boris Johnson knows it too. During the Referendum campaign, he said: \u201cThe single market is a term of art for the vast empire of EU legislation and regulation \u2026. we should get out of the empire of EU law-making and what we should have instead is access to the single market.\u2019<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not simple either, as Johnson knows \u2013 or should now. \u2018Access\u2019 to the single market, as opposed to membership, means paying tariffs \u2013 10% on cars for example – and abiding by EU requirements on product standards, the environment and safety. \u00a0You can do a bespoke deal as Canada has to soften the terms of trade, but you can\u2019t escape EU standards if you want to sell stuff there. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies observes<\/a>, any country can have access to the single market. The term is virtually meaningless.<\/p>\n

But what about Norway, someone will say. Well, Norway isn\u2019t so much a non-member of the EU as an honorary member. To trade as part of the single market, it accepts the authority of EU regulations and freedom of movement for EU citizens. It just doesn\u2019t have any say in how the rules are made.<\/p>\n

Here in Britain, we\u2019ve made our bed and we have to lie in it, no matter how hard. Soft Brexit simply can\u2019t happen. It is a contradiction in terms \u2013 an oxymoron \u2013 like a straight banana, a flying pig – or increasingly – an honest politician.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been a lot more talk of hard and soft Brexits this week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidvigar.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}