Farage and Anti-EU forces won't give any answers as to what would happen in case of Brexit

Here's Andrew Marshall's letter in the CNJ this week.

A divorce from the EU after 43 years would be a messy business

THIS year looks likely to bring the EU referendum and, no doubt, by the end of the year people in Camden will be heartily sick of the debate. 

But it matters desperately, because leaving the EU after four decades would bring big, unquantifiable, risks for the way the UK economy works. Tellingly, Nigel Farage and the anti-EU brigade won’t answer some basic questions about what would happen if we left. 

Would the UK become a member of the European Economic Area, like Norway, which would give it access to the single market but force us to obey all the rules but without having any say?  

Would the UK be able to secure a trade special deal with the EU like Switzerland? 

Both these options involve free movement of labour, by the way, and financial contributions. Or would we just have rely on being a World Trade Organisation member, so trading with the EU in the way that, say, Brazil does; which would mean significant constraints on our huge trade in services especially? 

The reason the anti-EU campaign won’t tell us is that they don’t know what could be secured, just as Alex Salmond was unable to answer the currency question in the Scottish referendum. 

What’s certain is that in those circumstances, the UK would not be in the room when the other 27 states were working out what to offer.    

Our bargaining power would be weak, because while the EU takes nearly half UK exports we account for only about a tenth of exports from other EU countries to us. No country has ever left the EU – a divorce after 43 years would be messy and not a risk we should lightly take.

We at Camden in Europe look forward to debating this anywhere, any time, across the borough.

CLLR ANDREW MARSHALL (CONSERVATIVE)
Camden in Europe