2/ before the referendum, both sides undoubtedly exaggerated their positions and stretched the truth. I.E. Vote Leave said Turkey was imminently going to join the EU. While Turkey was/is an EU official accession state, it wasn't and isn't joining anytime soon.
3/ Likewise, remainers claimed there would be an emergency budget and Recession immediately after a vote to leave. Neither have transpired, but it would be false to say there hasn't been a negative effect on the UK economy.
4/ what remainers should have said all along is that these negative effects will come about *when the UK actually leaves*; because now, perfectly logical and legitimate concerns are being labelled as 'Project Fear 2.0.' by the ERG cabal and their media allies.
5/ even if we say that 75% of the warnings that experts and industry figures are now giving about a 'no-deal' brexit are baseless (and we don't think that's the case) what about the 25% of concerns that are legitimate?
6/ even if 75% of warnings about no-deal are totally false, the remaining 25% will be enough to give our economy a black eye and make life difficult for millions of UK citizens. Are we really ready to take such a foolish step?
7/ if we choose a brexit based on the precedents of the efta states we could make the transition smoothly and seamlessly. 90% of the problems associated with brexit will simply not apply.
8/ If a decade down the line we found it didn't suit us; we could leave the EEA and efta and move to a new relationship with the EU, but at our own pace, without a ticking clock working against us.
9/ in short, efta/EEA gets us out of the EU, reflects the referendum result and meets the top brexit priorities of the public. We can't risk a no-deal brexit. /End #efta#Brexit
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1/ A lot of these hard brexit puppets are now coming out of the woodwork; saying things like "don't attack us personally, that shows you have lost the battle of ideas". Fair enough. Except...
2/ they haven't won the battle of ideas at all. Every time they put forward ideas and get ERG friends to parrot them in the media, they get disproved by experts or shot down by the EU.
3/ if their ideas were so good we would be well on the way now to a fantastic uk-eu FTA the likes of which has never been seen before. But WE AREN'T.
1/ We want to address something now which is key to the entire Brexit debate. It takes the form of two questions with one answer:
2/ People have busy lives. Even we political obsessives are staggered by the complexities of Parliamentary systems, International law and global trade. Its a lot to take in...
3/ And when a member of the public (leaver or remainer) sees the EU signing trade deals with Canada 🇨🇦, Japan🇯🇵 etc, they ask a sensible and legitimate question - why can't they sign such a deal with the UK? euractiv.com/section/climat…
1/ One of the whinges we hear from people like @andreajenkyns is "we can't be tied to EU rules after brexit"!!. To that, we would ask - which EU rules are you opposed to?
2/ in some ways the EU acts as an intermediary between international standards settings bodies and member states:
3/ however, leaving the EEA means that even if we voluntarily adopt the rules set by global bodies we won't get automatic single market access. We will be a 'third Country' and be treated as such.
1/ the problem with hardcore Brexiteers is that they think either no brexit plan is needed or that a plan could be found easily but 'remainers' in the civil service and government don't want to find one.
2/ it ultimately boils down to a form of magical thinking - if we believe in brexit enough, they think; - we will get everything we want - full access to SM, no fees, ftas around the world and full control of immigration, frictionless borders and 100% sovereignty.
3/ but that's not realistic. Any relationship is based on give and take. Pros and cons.