At a time when
the government has managed to set itself impossible objectives over the most
important change facing the UK for decades, the main opposition party, Labour,
sometimes seems to be going out of its way to be even more incoherent on the
same issue. Whilst I actually agree with
the Brexiteers that remaining part of the single market isn’t really leaving
the EU at all (it achieves few of the objectives which they originally set
themselves), it’s clear that the short term economic damage would be much more
limited. I had thought
that Labour was edging towards that position, but Corbyn has managed to lead
them away again, by saying
that the UK cannot stay within the trading block.
Technically,
what he and those speaking for him are saying is correct; “The single market is not a membership club that can be joined”. It isn’t, and there is no way of applying to
join it as a member. It’s
hair-splitting, though. It is perfectly
possible to continue to ‘participate’ fully in the single market without being
in the EU, as Norway does. It involves
accepting the rules of the single market, of course, but that’s ultimately all a single market is – a set of rules and regulations followed by all and
enforced collectively.
Obtaining the
benefits of participation in the market depend on adherence to, and enforcement
of, those rules and regulations, but in saying that “we seek through negotiation to retain the benefits of the single
market” without committing to doing that, Labour are effectively suffering
from the same delusion as the Tories.
The difference between ‘participation’ and ‘membership’ is mere
semantics, but if they want to be pedantic, let them carry on. The more significant difference is between ‘participation’
and merely seeking to ‘enjoy the benefits’, and until Labour move from the latter
to the former, their position will continue to be, in substance, no different
from that of the government.
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