Up In The Air?

And so the Conservative Party's big business base swings into action, effectively announcing, via the Airbus press office, that that party's policy is to remain in the Single Market and the Customs Union, whether outside the European Union or inside it. 

The former would be the only thing worse than the letter, but those two will be the options at the second referendum, with no Third Way. Had this promise not been made by the Prime Minister on Wednesday, then Dominic Grieve would have led his troops into the Division Lobby against the Government and it would already have fallen by now.

No one in the Conservative Party has ever been against the EU on principle. Even Enoch Powell was pro-Market initially. From him onwards, all that they have ever wanted has been better terms. Until the very late 1980s, almost none of them wanted even that, and criticism of the wretched project was pilloried as "Loony Left". 

David Davis was John Major's Europe Minister, when John Redwood, Michael Portillo, Norman Lamont, Peter Lilley and Michael Howard were all in the Cabinet. In 2003, Howard was still so pro-EU that he headed the coup against Iain Duncan Smith, although Brexit had not been Conservative Party policy even under IDS.

Insofar as there ever was a "Common Market", then it has always been the Customs Union, while the Single Market was created by Margaret Thatcher. Of course her flame-keepers want to stay in them. And of course the rest of us need to demand that we withdraw from them. Away with their State Aid rules, with their bans on capital controls, and with all the rest of it.

Forward instead to a trade agreement with each of the BRICS countries while remaining thoroughly critical of all five of their current Governments. Forward to the integration into the Belt and Road Initiative of all four parts of the United Kingdom, of all nine English regions, and of all of the British Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. And forward to very much more besides.

I need £10,000 in order to stand for Parliament with any chance of winning. My crowdfunding page has been taken down without my knowledge or consent. But you can still email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com instead, and that address accepts PayPal.