Since we joined the EU, Britain has been seen as a convenient stepping stone into a wealth of European markets. Our entry into the European single market in 1992 has become the oil that greases the wheel for any organisation that adds UK to its name and rebrands itself as a member of the EU.
The fear, it seems, is that if Britain surrounds itself with a wall of Union Jacks and cuts the elastic that binds us to the EU in a single act while yelling ‘Freedom’, it will flirt back and deal a stinging blow to the collective business and commercial backside. Or worse, that, sticking to the Braveheart analogy, the cry of freedom will be closely followed by a ritualistic disembowelment.
That view might be tad alarmist you may feel. Foreign trade without the advantages of the single market is a concern that is still to be negotiated isn’t it? What is already a fact of life is the level of FDI, Foreign Direct Investment. Never heard of FDI ? Well let me assure you that you have every time you popped to the supermarket, you probably just didn’t realise it.