Frank Field is also now belatedly pushing the Norway/EFTA/EEA option with an article in The Guardian (HERE) and joining Nick Boles in his pick 'n mix emporium. Only yesterday Jean Claude Piris explained why this wasn't possible (HERE) - even making the huge assumption that tiny EFTA actually wanted a massive and temporary cuckoo in the nest and the EU were willing to provide what Sir Ivan Rogers called the "finest transitional feather bed". There are legal problems as well, insufficient time and the impossibility of being in the EEA and the EU customs union at the same time. It's a total Fantasyland.
What's shocking is that a long standing MP like Field, who campaigned to leave the EU, is now chipping in what he calls his "idea" as though he's helping some removals men get a large awkward wardrobe through a front door rather than looking at the future of one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious.
Bad as it is Field is also arrogant enough to think because we are who we are, European nations will be falling over themselves to offer us exactly what we want - assuming that is we can ever decide what we want. It really is hubris.
This is what we're reduced to as we enter the last few weeks of the tortuous negotiations. Floundering around and dreaming up fantasies that cannot possibly be delivered. How can anyone take us seriously as a nation ever again.
Not one of the Brexiteers ever gave a second thought to the HOW we could or should leave the EU. Now as we reach the crunch moment they are beginning to realise slogans, mantras and tautologies are not a substitute for a serious, realistic plan involving hard choices and painful compromises. Even now people like Field won't face up to the real world problems and are reduced to clutching at straws.
Tom Harris at The Telegraph (HERE) is another one who favours the Norway option, but for him it's a way of bringing a divided country together. It's amazing how what has been described as vassalage seems to look almost desirable when the alternative is kneecapping yourself.
