Now that the decision is in, that restraint no longer applies. Via a survey conducted by Bloomberg , the other 27 member states of the EU have been vocal in conveying the terms on which they would allow a post-Brexit Britain privileged, preferential access to the single market. The bottom line is that Britain will have to accept free movement of people: put simply, if the UK wants to sell its goods and services into the single market on favourable terms, our European neighbours will demand we accept unlimited migration of EU citizens.
According to Bloomberg, France will be especially hardline. If Theresa May merely seeks “passporting rights” for UK banks – so that financial services have premium access to the single market, even as the rest of the British economy does not – the price will be free movement. [...]
Back then we blithely talked about the Norway model, sometimes tweaking it as Norway-plus or Norway-minus, as if it were solely up to Britain to decide. We chose to forget that when it comes to our relationship with Europe, there is more than one party. That’s why it’s called a relationship: there are other people involved.
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