There are 8 major problems with the Brexiteers' new Norway-then-Canada plan for extricating Britain from the EU.
Norway first,then Canada - easy.
Except it isn’t.
Faced with the mad riddle of taking Britain out of the EU in a way that is acceptable to both the U.K. parliament and Brussels, a growing number of Tory MPs and thinkers have alighted on an idea: the Brexit one-two.
Former minister Nick Boles refloats his version of the plan in an op-ed for the Sunday Telegraph, saying he could no longer support the “humiliation” of the Chequers plan. And it is rumored that Cabinet Brexiteer Michael Gove is sympathetic to it.
The idea is simple: First ditch Chequers (and probably lose its architect Theresa May in the process). Next, agree to “park temporarily,” as Boles puts it, in the single market like Norway. Finally, once Britain has finally left the EU, start negotiating a looser free-trade relationship like Canada’s.
The Brexit one-two might look like a smoother route out of the EU — it is anything but.
The great benefit of this play is that it removes the EU’s ticking-clock leverage, giving the U.K. government the time to prepare properly for a no-deal if an agreement cannot be reached.
Sounds simple,but it isn’t.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Here are eight problems with the idea.
