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1/ In the images below, we have a mobile telephone and a calculator. They are both similar in many ways. Both are manufactured electronic devices. 
2/ in this comparison the telephone will be the single market (the EU's internal market, extended [with key exceptions] to the EEA countries and to a lesser extent 🇨🇭)
3/ whereas the calculator represents the customs union.
4/ both telephones and calculators are useful. You would find both in any large organisation. The key difference is that while the telephone is becoming more advanced more rapidly..
5/ A calculator from the 1990s might be clunkier have slightly less functions than one from today but if a 90s Calculator appeared in your office it wouldn't be seen as archaotech - people would be able to use it and it would compare favourably to its modern counterpart.
6/ mobile phones or 'cell phones' as Americans say; (téléphones portables for the francophones) have evolved rapidly over the years. Mobile phones can now ACT AS CALCULATORS!!
7/ we are sure that calculator experts will now flood our notifications to explain that no mere phone app can replace the full functionality of an expensive top of the line calculator. Perhaps that's true.
8/ But if you really needed to choose, you would pick the phone that can function as a calculator over a calculator that can't act as a telephone.
9/ When the UK leaves the EU we cannot be in 'the,' single market or 'the' customs union. So we need to decide - do we want to try to replicate both of these arrangements or one; or none of them?
10/ Iceland 🇮🇸 participates in a 'common market' with the EU via the EEA agreement so effectively participates in the single market but it is not in the Customs Union EUCU or 'a' customs union. Turkey 🇹🇷 is not in the single market or EEA but is in a customs union with the EU.
11/ going back to our Calculator/telephone comparison, customs unions are in principle the same as they were ten or more years ago; while the single market is frequently deepened and added to. Just like phones becomes more useful over time.
12/ when politicians say we MUST stay in the customs union but pay little heed to the single market, it is bizarre to us. Customs unions usually mean tariffs between parties are largely abolished yes, but the EEA agreement also does the same:
13/ and in the modern world customs unions do little to avoid border inspections - see this from the EU: ec.europa.eu/commission/pub…
15/ in fact in the modern world has lots of new systems, agreements and methods that mean a lot of the old fashioned problems that customs unions help solve can be done away from the border anyway.
16/ don't believe us? Ask a man who knows:
17/ the EU and UK are sinking millions into schemes and programs like Customs 2020, REX and the UCC to make these things even simpler and faster.
18/ so what should the UK do? Stay aligned to the Single Market via membership of the European Economic Area and then negotiate a new bilateral customs arrangement with the EU.
19/ you might now say Piffle! Unicorns! 🦄the EU would never agree to that! Except...they have already indicated they would in the Political Declaration:
20/ which also is in accordance with the Lisbon Treaty:
22/ with a possible timeline:
23/ at the end of the timeline we would be out of the EU ☑️ able to make our own free trade deals☑️ control our own fishing waters 🎣☑️ and workers rights would still be protected. ☑️
24/ thanks for listening. /End
