Tag Archives: soft brexit

LibLink: Nick Clegg – British cross-border supply chains will be strangled by hard Brexit red tape

By Paul Walter | Sat 10th February 2018 - 9:47 am

Writing in the i newspaper, Nick Clegg says that any chance of Soft Brexit has been killed off by Theresa May. Instead, MPs will be faced with the choice of a hard Brexit or no Brexit.

Nick Clegg hits the nail on the head when he describes how modern cross-border supply chains will be destroyed by a hard Brexit:

It cannot be said enough: the Brexit this Government is determined to impose on this country cannot under any circumstances avoid the introduction of extensive new barriers, costs and frictions to trade with our largest trading partners.

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged hard brexit and nick clegg | 19 Comments

The case for a softer Brexit

By Louis Mian | Mon 19th June 2017 - 4:05 pm

After the UK voted to leave the EU, by only a slim majority, May’s Conservatives (and to a certain extent Corbyn’s Labour) failed to understand that a compromise needed to be made between Leave voters and Remain voters. As I write this, I feel as though I will probably be branded as a ‘remoaner’, as ‘anti-democratic’ or as ‘against the will of the people’. The truth is that I am none of those.

Even many Leave supporting politicians in the lead up to the referendum, last year, supported the prospect of a Britain outside the EU, but inside the single market.

Nobody is talking about threatening our place in the single market.
– Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP

Only a madman would actually leave the market.
– Owen Paterson, Conservative MP

Increasingly the Norway option looks the best for the UK.
– Arron Banks, Leave.EU founder

Clearly many people voted Leave on the assumption that the UK would stay in the single market, making May’s vision for a UK, isolated from the rest of Europe, twisted and unfair. A poll, published by NatCen Social Research, found that 90% of leave voters were in favour of the UK being inside the common market and around two thirds of all voters wanted British businesses to comply with EU design and safety regulations, as well as fisheries policies.