EU Referendum


Brexit: those reckless Brexiteers


31/07/2016




Booker in his column today picks up on the vibes that many of us are getting. "A fearful shadow is hanging over our impending Brexit negotiations with the EU", he writes. "It centres on the very people who were most vocal in calling for a referendum in the first place: those senior Tory eurosceptics, including the 'Three Brexiteers' now billed to play the lead roles in the negotiations".

What became painfully clear during the campaign was not just that the official "leavers" were unable to offer a coherent "exit plan", but that they also seemed to be woefully ignorant of the technical complexities involved in any process of leaving the EU.

Although they did not share any common strategy, the likes of Boris Johnson, David Davis, Liam Fox, Bill Cash and Co, came up with one naive suggestion after another, based on nothing more than wishful thinking.

In practical terms, they showed that they did not really have a clue what they were talking about. Some even imagined that we could leave simply by repealing the European Communities Act, under which EU law automatically becomes British law: not realising how flagrant a break this would be of international treaty law, as enshrined in Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

If these people have one thing in common it is their insistence that we cannot remain part of the EU's single market, because this would require us to accept uncontrolled immigration from within the EU under its freedom of movement rules.

These people thus sneer at any thought that we should go for the immediate off-the-shelf solution of remaining in the European Economic Area (EEA), while joining countries such as Norway in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA).

This would allow us to continue trading with the single market just as we do now. We would even gain a limited right to control our borders, and would also be free to strike trade deals with non-EU countries such as America and India.

What these "Brexiteers" all seem to imagine is that we could somehow reach a special, one-off trade deal with the EU, quite oblivious to the fact that any such deal, as on the EU-Canada model, would take far too long to negotiate, and would exclude us from key benefits of the internal market, such as our vital trade in financial services.

The most crucial gap in their knowledge, however, is their failure to understand that, because all arrangements governing trade are now solely a competence of the EU, we can legally carry on international trade only in accordance with the immensely complex procedures laid down in the EU Customs Code, a package that is 1,300 pages long.

Unless Theresa May takes a firm grip on what her ministers are up to, by insisting that they go for the simple option of remaining in the EEA, we could even face the ultimate disaster where the timetable for negotiations runs out.

In this case, as I have already reported, we don't just drop out of the EU without a settlement, but also out of its Customs Code on which all our current trading procedures depend. Overnight we would no longer have any system of law allowing us to continue trading at all. Not just with the EU, but with anyone else.

Thus we're beginning to see a glimpse of reality in a national newspaper, albeit in the Booker "ghetto". But the point is made. Playtime is over and Tory MP eurosceptics really do need to get their act together.

These are not ordinary people – their prestige gives them considerable authority which they are currently abusing. They should not be using their positions to indulge their fantasies. Their job is to keep the Government on track, not to create unnecessary obstacles which might force us down the wrong path.