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from the somebody-didn't-think-this-all-the-way-through dept.
At least one UK businessman is attaching a condition to his continued support of the ruling Conservative Party:
A major Tory donor has threatened to stop funding the party if Theresa May plans to remove the UK from the "critical" single market after Brexit. Sir Andrew Cook, who has given more than £1.2m to the party, told BBC Radio 4 that ending single market access was "chronic and dangerous" to the economy. The engineering firm chairman said at least one of his factories was almost "entirely dependent" on access to it.
Sir Andrew backed the Remain campaign in the EU referendum. "There are barriers to entry without the single market, there are tariffs," said Sir Andrew, who chairs William Cook, his family's firm which makes components for the rail, energy and defence industries. "One of my factories has 200 people employed making engineering parts that go to France, Germany and Italy," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Also at Reuters. Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has offered to take a Scottish independence referendum off the table in exchange for a "soft Brexit" involving access to the single market.
The BBC reports that while the EU's presence in London is likely to shrink, organizations like the European Banking Authority (EBA) might stick around if the UK remains in the single market.
Finally, have you applied for your Irish passport yet?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by lx on Monday January 09 2017, @05:14AM
It's easy to leave the EU.
The problem is that the May government wants to leave and retain all the advantages of EU membership.
Of course the rest of Europe isn't going along with that plan.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday January 09 2017, @08:33AM
The problem is that the May government wants to leave and retain all the advantages of EU membership.
Maybe that is so, but I get the impression that there's some EU unionists who want to cut the UK completely off for spite.
(Score: 3, Informative) by mojo chan on Monday January 09 2017, @01:40PM
It's quite simple. The European Economic Area, the common market, is based on the principal of the free movement of goods, capital and labour. You can't have two of the three, it's all or nothing. No other country gets to pick and choose.
The only alternative to negotiate a deal. Lots of countries have done that, but it takes a long time. Certainly more than 18 months that the UK realistically has to negotiate its exit from the EU. So there are only two realistic options - we stay in the common market and accept all the rules and freedom of movement, or we come out and lose all the benefits.
Other European countries are naturally going to take advantage of our stupidity. France and Germany and Ireland can build up their financial services as companies leave London. Spain can get joint sovereignty over Gibraltar or cripple its economy. On top of that, Scotland will leave the UK if we leave the EEA. There will be some kind of weird border with EU Ireland and Scotland. And we made some kind of promise to Nissan that now has to be factored in too.
Okay, I lied, it's not simple at all. The point is that the UK is in a very weak position. We could lose so much, and have very few cards in our hand.
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(Score: 2) by tonyPick on Monday January 09 2017, @02:38PM
Minor point - the EU technically refers to the four freedoms (goods, people, services and capital).
Otherwise everything you've said is correct - the UK's fundamental problem now is that the leave campaign means it's politically unacceptable for the government to accept free movement of people but it's also economic suicide for the UK to lose the other three, and there's simply no way around that or enough time to get an alternative deal that isn't economically punishing in the two year time frame.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @10:34AM
> Of course the rest of Europe isn't going along with that plan.
That would be incredibly stupid and childish. The single market is benefiting them too.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 09 2017, @01:39PM
> That would be incredibly stupid and childish. The single market is benefiting them too.
If you really think like that you are out of whack compared to the vast, vast majority of humans and even apes (first best link from Google: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140918141151.htm). [sciencedaily.com]
Large-scale cooperation is impossible without fairness, giving someone a better deal (especially if unfairly so where they benefit vastly more than anyone else) for leaving WILL rip the community apart and in the end almost certainly mean the end of even the single market.
I am pretty sure no sane human would first insult his boss, then ask for a pay rise and lower work hours and expect to get all that even when the business still would get more benefit out of it than they are paying salary! (even if it may happen in rare cases when someone was EXTREMELY underpaid compared to what they are worth to the company)