Leave the club – lose the benefits
IF Britain had voted to remain in the EU, whilst another of the 27 nations, X, had chosen to leave, we would all have agreed that X must not be permitted to enjoy the same trade benefits as club members.
It would have become essential to impose trade barriers, in and out, between X and the EU, to enrich us, the remaining club members, with more beneficial reciprocal trade.
This is especially true if X had chosen to accept the movement of money, but not of people. The EU must ensure that such a nation has no access to the Single Market.
Nations which are opposed to the free movement of all citizens, as deriving, like democracy, from the principle of egalitarianism, have no place within the EU club of those who believe in free movement as one of the two founding ethical principles of the EU, plus the idea of nations combining to create world peace.
Even if all Brexit supporters refute such profound beliefs for themselves, they should still be able to recognise them in other people, so very different from themselves.
Brexit leaders have claimed this trade break with the EU will not undermine our prosperity because an isolated Britain will form much better trade deals with the rest of the world. While that may be extremely unlikely, it might be vaguely possible, since the future is always unknown, but scarcely a complete mystery.
In the meantime, we must expect that our actions must force the EU to raise tax barriers against us, to concentrate free trade within the club, in order best to ensure the continued prosperity of that club.
They have the primary duty to make decisions which defend both the financial interests, but also those ethical beliefs upon which the club was founded, which we have chosen to reject.
Within Britain’s population, citizens who believe in nations cooperating can never agree with those isolationists who are quite opposed to thinking beyond Britain’s trade, to those goals shared by 27 nations, such as world peace and honest control over all corporations. CN Westerman Brynna