This rather silly comment on my letter to the Sunday Times (we aren’t in 2016 any more: move on) is however interesting.
https://twitter.com/drbrexit/status/1341055441061724160
The point of my short letter was simply that all significant trade agreements are about trade-offs: accepting limits on what you can do in return for limiting others’ ability to do things that harm your economy or limit your people’s opportunities.
Talk about “sovereignty” (or, in Lee’s case, erecting the “ever closer union” straw man) is usually designed to hide these trade-offs.
When intelligent people try to hide from a debate, they do it for a reason. Here, it’s because the extreme Brexiters know that (in discussions about our trade relations with the EU) the centre of UK public opinion is in favour of a closer relationship than they want.
In other words, once the debate gets on to trade offs (if we agree this, then these opportunities open up or that restriction in our trade won’t apply) then they start losing.
Better, then, to resist discussion of trade offs and instead keep to the sovereignty mantra (and vapid slogans like “control of our laws and our borders”).
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