On Wed, 1 Feb 2017 12:36:24 +0000
Neil Williams wrote:
On 2017-02-01 11:07:29 +0000, d said:
What does the aspect matter, its in or out, there's no halfway house as
brussels has made clear.
EEA and EFTA membership will be an option (they are not "membership of
the EU"), and at least some Brexiters will have preferred that. It
would only take 4.00000001% of the overall vote to have voted "out" but
preferred one of those for there to be no mandate for total withdrawal.
Well I have heard on the radio more than once that legally we could remain
inside the EFTA but still leave the EU since the former was a seperate
agreement. But of course that would no doubt tie up lawyers on both sides of
the channel in knots for years delaying Brexit almost indefinately which would
be even worse from an economic uncertainty point of view than either leave
or remain.
For that reason, I think the referendum should have had two questions:-
1. Do you wish the UK to leave the EU or remain in it on the same basis
as it is currently a member?
2. If the outcome of the first question is to leave the EU, would you
prefer (a) to withdraw completely, (b) to remain in the European
Economic Area, (c) to remain in the European Free Trade Area?
Now it might have been Leave and (a) - there's a fair chance it would
have been. But at least what was happening would have a clear mandate.
As Recliner said, too complex. And even these choices could no doubt have
details which could be argued over in turn for ever and a day.
--
Spud