Does leaving the EU also mean leaving the Single Market?

On the 23rd of June 2016, the British electorate were asked a question: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”

That question has now been answered. The important debate now is what will Britain look like going forward.

The first big debate that must take place is wether or not the UK maintains its free trade arrangements with European nations who subscribe to what is called the "Single Market" - a free trade area where companies can move goods, capital and labour across borders without tariffs or customs charges.

We are now being told, however, that this has already been decided, by implication of the referendum on the 23rd of June. That somehow we all missed the small print somewhere on the back of the ballot paper that a vote to Leave the European Union - a political institution - was automatically a vote to also leave each of it’s satellite institutions.

Of course, this is nonsense. If it’s not on the ballot paper, you cannot argue that it is the will of the people.

But we are told that “out means out”, that you cannot subscribe to the EU’s satellite institutions if you are not a full member. This is also incorrect. Both Switzerland and Norway have access to the Single Market, neither of which are members of the EU.

The debate on Britain’s membership of the Single Market, the European Court of Justice, the Customs Union, and so on, must be debated properly in Parliament, and opinions from all sides must be heard and respected. These issues were not addressed in the referendum.

It is, in my opinion, extremely presumptuous to say, based solely on interpretations of the subtext of the ballot paper, that these issues should not be contested or challenged, and that to do so is to "defy the will of the people." I believe that such a proposition will only encourage the alarmingly fanatical spirit of intolerance which has already polluted the political debate in the country at large, and so further damage our increasingly fragile democracy.

I have come to accept that Britain is going to leave the EU. Brexit is the most important political issue facing Britain in my lifetime. I suspect that history will remember this event as one of the biggest political mistakes in recent years, but once the cow has been milked there is no squirting the cream back up her udder, so here we are to see things through.

I therefore am proud to remain a pro-European. My ideal would be, firstly, that the EU will be forced to recognise that it has to change in order to survive; no one wants a United States of Europe, a modern Tower of Babel, other than the political elite. European citizens do want some boundaries to be respected, in the same way that everyone wants privacy in their own home.

Secondly, that Britain will be able to maintain its unrestricted access to the economic community of Europe, and the benefits of.

And most importantly, that this government will commit itself to strengthening the British economy now, before we leave, so as to counter any potential economic shockwave that may come about when we eventually exit.