Tuesday, October 20, 2015

I can answer that question, Mr. Prime Minister.

From today's Open Europe news summary:

Cameron: Those who want to leave EU will have to answer question of single market access

In his House of Commons statement following last week’s European Council summit, Prime Minister David Cameron said that, when it comes to EU membership, “I want Britain to have the best of both worlds” in terms of sovereignty and market access. He reiterated the four key objectives of his renegotiation including extricating Britain from ‘ever closer union’, boosting the EU’s competitiveness by “signing new trade deals, cutting regulation and completing the single market”, ensuring that the EU “works for those outside the single currency” and changing EU rules on benefits access to “ensure that our welfare system is not an artificial draw for people to come to Britain.”
During the subsequent debate, Cameron argued that “as we get closer to the debate on whether Britain can stay in a reformed EU, those of us who want that outcome will be able to point clearly to what business gets from Britain being in the single market with a vote and a say, and those…who might want to leave, will have to answer the question of what guarantees they can get on single market access and single market negotiation ability.”
Pressed by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to take part in the EU refugee relocation scheme, Cameron responded, “If we become part of [this] mechanism…we are encouraging people to make the dangerous journey.” In response to a question about border controls, he argued, “Can we guarantee that we will be able to have the excellent juxtaposed border controls in France that we have today if we do not have an adequate relationship with the EU?”
Finally, on the issue of 16 and 17 year olds voting in the EU referendum, Cameron argued, “We voted in this House of Commons on votes at 16, and we voted against them, so I think we should stick to that position.”
                    
Source: Hansard
 
Dear Prime Minister,
I can answer your question, to wit..what guarantees Eurosceptics can give on Britain's post EU single market access. None. But, then, neither can you give a guarantee that the EU will not ignore your negotiated repatriation of powers. In fact, no one can ever guarantee anything that others may do. That is the whole point of leaving the EU--to regain sovereignty, which means to regain independence. It turns out that when the UK joined the EU it unwittingly signed away its sovereignty to unelected EU bureaucrats. Now its only option (from inside the EU) is to beg to be allowed to run its own country in order to trade with the mostly insolvent EU members. The EU's outrageous regulations are making that harder and harder to swallow. But as one looks around, one sees lots of non-member nations trading freely with the EU. Of course, this does not rule out the possibility that the EU could prohibit all trade of its members with the UK simply out of spite. If there's one thing we've learned it is that there is no preposterous diktat that is beyond the consideration of Brussels' unelected elite.
 
The UK's simple yet powerful policy should be to adopt unilateral free trade with all the world. Now there's an idea that the UK can export at no cost whatsoever!

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