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Ian Clark's avatar

How about the Labour Party making a commitment to having Treasury/OBR make and publish those calculations for the day it takes office? Can’t understand why they won’t contemplate trying to rejoin the single market

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Peter Vintner's avatar

The 4 freedoms of the Single Market are non-negotiable. So, no reciprocal citizens rights (aka Freedom of Movement) = no Single Market.

It's very simple. Firstly the Labour Left are flogging the "lump of labour" fallacy, just like Farage does. At the same time they sincerely believe EU citizens = cheap labour, undermining the wages of British workers.

So basically, the Labour Left only see the value of EU citizens as "workers", stealing British jobs - and cheap job thieves at that. If in doubt ask people like Mick Lynch and Jeremy Corbyn, who are both ideologically set against EU Freedom of Movement of people.

So Labour cannot propose rejoining the Single Market. Heaven forbid that a citizen of an EU member state should benefit from working in Britain. The Labour Left are every bit as xenophobic and inhumane as the Tory Right.

Hatred of foreigners is ultimately a suicidal obsession of both Right and Left.

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James McAnespy's avatar

“The Labour Left are every bit as xenophobic and inhumane as the Tory Right.”

That’s inaccurate and unfair. You make a fair point about their protectionist instincts, but nobody from Labour’s left could even conceive of something as callous as the Rwanda policy. And if anyone in Labour were to come up with the ‘hostile environment’ vans it’d be more likely to be the Mandelson wing of the party.

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Clive Page's avatar

Yes, but the latest polls suggest that a majority of the British electorate would even support freedom of movement. The main problem is probably that the EU wouldn't want us back.

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Ian Clark's avatar

“a suicidal obsession of both Right and Left” - crap from both sides then! Not sure Lynch, Corbyn or Farage would be terribly helpful in our current circumstances (not that Sunak et al are doing any good). If we want an economy with any chance of competing with the rest of the G20 the single market still looks to me like the only realistic option

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Peter Vintner's avatar

Yes, the Single Market is the only realistic option to any sensible person. But that would defeat the aims of Brexit's architects, who wanted to escape from the regulations of the Single Market. Any regulations to do with rights and financial transparency are out of the question. Labour Left don't like the regulations relating to state support of private industry. Both Tory Right and Labour Left demand the right to skew the playing field for trade and business, and to beggar their neighbours. So the Single Market is out of the question. Financial criminals and parasites, otherwise known as Libertarians, are quite happy.

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