The London Evening Standard has a great article (HERE) about having cake and eating it. The piece is about the Brexiteer's cake fantasy finally coming to an end. It says the Foreign Secretary's claim that we go for a cake-and-eat-deal is not on the table. It never was in truth. The next few days until the December summit will show that it was always a fantasy.
The newspaper claims (one G Osborne is the editor and I assume he still has pretty good contacts) that Monday's cabinet committee meeting actually spent most time discussing Britain's end state in the new relationship with the EU. To many this will come as a shock. That we have come so far without cabinet agreement on what Brexit means is amazing but apparently true.
The idea that we could leave the EU, the single market and the customs union but retain full, frictionless access to the market was, we were told repeatedly, what we would be able to negotiate. A free trade deal like CETA, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement with Canada was not good enough for us, it would represent "such a restriction on our mutual market access" as to be damaging to both the UK and EU, according to the PM in Florence.
But the article says, "Britain cannot simultaneously 'take back control' of writing its own rules and regulations, use its new-found “freedom” to support specific industries and regions (with free ports and the like), and then expect almost the same access to European markets that it has now".
The article ends with this:
Time is running out for the “cake having and cake eating” brigade.
Either we “take back control” and forget about a big trade deal with Europe, in which case, say Messrs Johnson and Gove, we shouldn’t hand over any cash and instead crash out without even a divorce deal; or we do hand over the €40 billion, sign up to EU rules we can’t shape, and continue to have frictionless trade with our near neighbours.
That is the unenviable choice Brexit Britain has brought on itself.
What a mess!
