Oh, happy day. Brexit really does mean Brexit. Excellent.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1andrew1
Margaret Thatcher's speech on the single market, 1988
"It's your job, the job of business, to gear yourselves up to take the opportunities which a single market of nearly 320 million people will offer.
Just think for a moment what a prospect that is. A single market without barriers—visible or invisible—giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the world's wealthiest and most prosperous people.
Bigger than Japan. Bigger than the United States. On your doorstep. And with the Channel Tunnel to give you direct access to it.
It's not a dream. It's not a vision. It's not some bureaucrat's plan. It's for real."
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It hasn't turned out quite like that though, has it. It may be a single market but it is nothing like a free one. It is regulated left right and centre, in a way that favours big business and imposes onerous costs on small ones. And the whole rotten edifice is overseen by the ECJ, which has proved quite ready to define its own remit extremely broadly.
The single market as seen from 2017 is an utterly different beast than was apparent in 1988 and I am very glad that we are not going to try to remain members of it.