Alan Sugar makes the case for the European Single Market in a video issued by the Department of Trade and Industry. As the market was launched on 1 January 1993, this presumably dates from a year or two before.
In doing so, he reminds us that one of the great benefits of the European Union was the way it reduced the red tape involved in exporting.
And the need to avoid that bureaucracy means that British business is likely to continue to meet EU standards even though we now have no say in drawing them up.
As I wrote in Liberator earlier this year, out of economic pragmatism rather then federalist enthusiasm:
There is no sensible policy on economic growth that does not involve lifting the sanctions we imposed on ourselves by leaving the Single Market, and that is true whatever position you took on Brexit. This is why Labour should be talking about rejoining it and why even intelligent Leavers – those who really do want to ‘make Brexit work’ – should support this policy too. (The unintelligent Leavers want Brexit to fail so they can announce that have been betrayed and wallow in self-pity.)
Interviewed on Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart’s second podcast Leading at the start of the month, Ed Davey declined to say that the Liberal Democrats wanted to see Britain back in the European Union. He was happy to talk about our instinctive internationalism, but that was as far as he would go. He dwelt on the need to develop a language that would take people with us, which is something, it is true, the official Leave campaign spectacularly failed to do in the EU referendum campaign. Above all, he did not want to return to the divisive politics of those days.
Yet it’s hard to see how an issue like Brexit can ever stop being divisive. The 1975 referendum on whether Britain should remain a member of the European Economic Community was won by more than two votes to one, but it did not reconcile the losers to Britain’s increasing involvement with European institutions.
No one would argue that the 2016 referendum campaign was good for British politics – Labour activists going to by-elections now have to be told not to insult any Conservative voters they came across – but the case for rejoining the Single Market has to be made and the debate has to be won. As sensible Conservatives has learnt to their cost, if you try to buy off the Brexit ultras they simply bank your concessions and come back for more.
2 comments:
I expect one argument in favour of the single market will come out of Britain's need for energy and food. We are currently grow about 65% of our own food. I don't know what the proportion for renewable energy uis, but I can't imagine we will be self sufficient in green energy anytime soon. That means we will need access to both products as cheaply as possible, presumably from continental Europe.
Meanwhile the UK government has nt imposed the tariff on food coming in from the EU (while of course UK farmers are subject the EU tarrifs)
It's probably time to resurrect the Liberal loaf
And of course the argument that the single market "opens the border to migrations" argument can be countered by pointing to the current migration numbers fiasco, as well as saying that the NHS etc needs migrants.
Tristan Ward
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