Robert Tombs Robert Tombs

We should not accept Brexit in name only

Given the seemingly highly technical nature of the current negotiations, members of the public who have normal lives to lead might be forgiven for thinking that the same issues are still being debated after more than four years. They might be forgiven for thinking this as much of the media, including the BBC, are happy simply to parrot the official line coming from Brussels: that this is just about compromise, both sides making necessary adjustments, and the EU simply acting in a normal and rational way.

Rational it may be. Normal it is not. The EU is being rational in ruthlessly pursuing its own interests. But it is entirely abnormal to try to impose on the UK restraints that are incompatible with political autonomy.

Pro-EU voices in Britain claim that the EU is simply trying to protect itself by requiring the UK to accept normal standards in order to have the benefits of trading with the famous ‘single market’.

The first obvious objection is that the EU arguably benefits from our ‘single market’ more than we do from theirs: if anyone needs protecting from unfair trading practices, which are bound into the EU monetary system, it is us.

But leave that aside for the moment. The obfuscation about what these negotiations are really about is now falling away. Angela Merkel has declared in the Bundestag that:

‘we not only need a level playing field for today but also for days to come… This is the big, difficult issue which is still on the table… this issue of fair competition between two diverging legal systems – this is the actual big issue for which we need satisfying solutions.’

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Written by
Robert Tombs

Robert Tombs is an emeritus professor in history at the University of Cambridge and the author of This Sovereign Isle: Britain in and out of Europe (Allen Lane, 2021). He also edits the History Reclaimed website

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