Sunday lunch at the magnificent Stoke Park was under the auspices of the local Conservative Association. After lunch their MP, Dominic Grieve, spoke and I was fortunate to get in a question which I’d like to expand into a statement.
Conservative MPs are polarised over the EU. Some, like Dominic who marched on Saturday for another referendum (doh), are Europhile extremists and some are Brexit purists who want us to have a complete clean-break divorce. However, I don’t think these extremes reflect the views of most party members. Obviously by “most members” I mean me. We may not have known what we wanted when we voted – I didn’t – but we have a pretty good idea now. I am appalled at re-running the referendum. I am just as horrified at leaving the EU without any trading relationship between the UK and the EU. It seems common sense, a currency that Conservative MPs seem not to deal in, to leave the EU and join the EFTA (optimal) or EEA. I advocated this in March 2017 in The Crunch. Why can’t the Conservative party pull together to go for the only solution that will work in the short term? It is because Conservative MPs, usually a middle of the road bunch, have become doctrinaire loonies and this madness may well lead to a Labour government.
Dominic Grieve’s response was that neither the EFTA nor the EEA would allow us to join. Dominic is a barrister, QC, and member of the Privy Council so he should know but we haven’t even asked to join. The Opposition are keeping quiet. They don’t need to oppose. They just need to wait until the Conservative party has torn itself apart.
It’s good to understand where Tory ideology leads you!
I would argue that the “Brexiteers” have not more forcibly raised the possibility of the UK joining the EEA (European Economic Area–Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland) or the EFTA (European Free Trade Association–Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland plus Switzerland) because–like the EU–the EEA and the EFTA are subject to their own supranational court, the European Free Trade Agreement Court. The “Brexiteers” have historically rallied against the notion that the UK, by virtue of its membership in the EU, has relinquished its authority for Parliament to make laws that contravene rulings by the ECJ (European Court of Justice). In addition, while the members of the EEA have access to the EU’s internal market, they must abide by the EU’s dictate of the four freedoms–the freedom of movement of goods, services, people and capital–which are anathema to the Leavers’ position of “taking back control of our money, laws and borders.”
At this point, it seems that all imaginable scenarios for the UK entering into some sort of trade agreement with the EU would not/could not attract sufficient support from enough MPs to solve this intractable problem and win the backing of a majority in Parliament.
Can anyone PLEASE explain what “Brexit means Brexit” actually means???
Well put Christopher.