Most of the people who claim the EU is trying to punish the UK also say they believe in market forces. Mogg, Hannan, Johnson, for example. (1)
But isn’t Brexit the ultimate market-testing of the UK’s international prestige? Is the UK an influential global power because we are just bloody good, or because it sits at the intersection of the EU, NATO and the Anglophone world? (2)
What happens when you take one element of that (the EU) away? Is the UK so bloody good that the EU will sacrifice its rules to maintain good relationships with us? Will other countries eagerly roll over their EU trade deals to include us? (3)
Or will leaving the EU diminish us? Will the world shrug and move on? Brexit will tell us how much our international standing is really worth. (4)
You only find out how much your house is really worth when you put it on the market. Still you get people who refuse to believe what the market tells them. “We’ve been getting silly offers,” they bleat. “It’s worth much more than that.” (5)
It would be ridiculous to claim that potential buyers are punishing you or imprisoning you because they refuse to pay what you think your house is worth. Eventually you have to sell at the price people are prepared to pay or stay put. (6)
It appears that the EU is not prepared to dilute its single market for the sake of its relationship with the UK. It’s a price we thought they’d pay but it seems they won’t. Other countries aren’t queuing up either, or else, like the US, they’re offering rotten deals. (7)
Maybe the UK’s standing in the world doesn’t have the value we thought it did. That’s what the market seems to be telling us. (8)
We have knocked down one of its most attractive features and the buyers are not as interested any more. (9)
Claiming we are being punished makes us sound like the bore down the pub, railing against the morons who can’t see how much his house is worth and won’t pay the asking price. (10)
Maybe the EU will crack and beg us for a deal. Perhaps all our other trade deals will roll over and even be improved. Perhaps our assessment of our value was right all along. Maybe we are just bloody good and the world will get it in the end. (11)
We are on the market now so we will soon find out how much we are worth. (12)
