"House of Lords warned EU will punish UK if it votes for Brexit" says Euractiv.com
Translation: Europhile (LibDem) MEP says europhile things in a poorly attended select committee meeting. Air-headed histrionics from a zealot. Catherine Bearder to be precise - a europhile's europhile.
The fact is the EU will enter negotiations in good faith to secure continuity of single market access. Why? Because business won't settle for anything less. Nobody wants a petulant trade war, neither side can afford one, and a recession for us is a recession for them - especially while the Euro isn't out of the woods in the midst of a global slowdown. Moreover, the EU is a rules based organisation. There are constraints.
It is inconceivable that that single market access on the same terms would be abandoned. It is not politically possible. The multinationals won't wear anything else.
There are those who suggest that we would leave in a single break, and some who even demand it, but our own civil servants tasked with Brexit will arrive at the very same conclusion we did. It has to be done in stages and that a market solution is the most readily available stop gap measure to minimise the risk.
That then brings us on to the glorious FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) of John McFarlane of BT. He says Brexit would cause "uncertainty" and proceeds to waffle about the European market - which we assume to mean single market. (what else could we infer?). It is our view that if McFarlane's political advisers are uncertain then he needs to fire them.
With so much allegedly hinging on single market continuity, with the Remain camps own propaganda saying it has mutual consequences if it is broken, nobody will allow the worst to happen. We suspect a doddering old europhile like McFarlane is being less than honest.
But then just as thought exercise, it is worth entertaining Catherine Bearder's assertions that the EU will punish us as an example. Does she realise what she is saying? That the EU, in light of an expression of democratic will, would risk EU trade to punish us. As reckless as that is, this is not in the spirit of cooperation and democracy we are frequently told the EU upholds.
Since Ms Bearder is a vocal advocate of the EU, her words must now be watched carefully so that she is reminded when she speaks of EU democracy - she, as an MEP, does not think it likely the EU will uphold those values. Is this really a union we want to be in?
