Fifty billion? Seventy-five? In its wilder moments, the FT might even splash on a hundred billion pounds as the minimum cost of our exit from the European Union. As the negotiations over our departure reach perhaps the thorniest issue of all, the final bill will have to be settled. But what should it be? If the hardliners on both side would calm down for a moment, then the answer should be very simple. We should agree to cover the cost of the disruption our departure creates, but only in return for a fair deal on trade.
It is probably a mystery to most people why we have to pay anything to leave the EU at all. After all, when you quit your local tennis club, you don’t expect to suddenly be presented with a bill for ten grand to cover the new floodlit court they have been thinking about building and the retirement party for the coach ten years away.
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