Rory Broomfield is the Deputy Director of The Freedom Association with special responsibility for the Better Off Out campaign. Follow Rory on Twitter.
Andrew Lilico on Sunday asserted that the “get-out-ers” should be debating “what do we do next?”, as the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union, in terms we have understood it up to now, is over.
Well, at the Freedom Zone next to the Conservative Party Conference, where Mr Lilico suggested he saw no vision, there were alternatives put forward. The first was in a pamphlet written by Ruth Lea and Brian Binley MP entitled Britain and Europe: a new relationship. As the title suggests, it looks at the UK’s relationship with Europe and how it must change.
In doing so, the authors conclude that the UK, under the WTO, should move towards the following trading relationships with EU and non-EU countries respectively:
- With EU countries: a Swiss-style relationship, based on free trade and mutually beneficial bilateral agreements.
- With non-EU countries: closer trade links with the Commonwealth, the USA and other favoured nations. These links could include the establishment of a Commonwealth FTA and/or Britain’s inclusion in NAFTA, which could then become the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement.