The Conservative MP, Stephen Hammond, writing in The Guardian (HERE) is openly (and cogently) arguing for Britain to remain in the single market by rejoining EFTA and then the EEA. This is a good thing, although he remains one small voice in the noisy debate about our future relationship with the EU. He joins Stephen Kinnock MP, son of the former Labour leader and EU Commissioner, Neil Kinnock, in advocating EEA membership as a way of averting a lot of economic damage.
However, since the leadership of both main political parties are opposed to it the prospect is at the moment still a distant one.
We seem to be on a strange circular journey. Immediately after the referendum, when nobody had a clue what was going to happen, although we aren't really much further on now, I seem to remember some suggestions we should become like Norway and the Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, saying in June 2016 (HERE) this was not something a powerful country like Britain should be considering. She said we won't like it.
“We used to talk to the Commission and we could call up the countries,” said Solberg. “It’s much more difficult to get the European Parliament to understand that Norway, which has decided not to become a member, should have special favors.”
So, having originally rejected the EEA option for the reasons set out by Mrs Solberg, Theresa May swung the wheel violently away from Brussels and towards what looked like a total separation from the single market and the customs union. But slowly, as the immense problems becomes ever clearer, the great ship is being forced onto a new course, closer to the EU and inside the EEA.
But this doesn't do anything to address the issues raised in 2016 by Norway's PM, we will still be following EU rules, paying in to the EU budget and accepting freedom of movement.
And to avoid delays in Dover and a hard Irish border, we will still need to be in the customs union and unable to sign new trade deals. Although Stephen Hammond does not seem to realise this since he claims, "New free trade agreements could still be possible, in a customs union or partnership with the EU". I don't think so.
How long the British people would accept all these things without having any influence over them is hard to say but it surely cannot be very long.
It is the same old problem isn't it. The one we keep circling round and round. If we move so far away to make Brexit tangible or worthwhile we risk very serious and possibly permanent damage to our economy. If we stay close enough to mitigate most (but not all) of the damage, accepting all the four freedoms and paying perhaps more money than before, we might as well be a full member.
The conundrum continues. We are perhaps only now having the real, informed debate about Brexit that we should have had two years ago.
