127 is the new 50

Articles that is. Which means this is another Brexit update.

A short one though.

It would appear that contrary to what the Government might claim, the EU and the Single Market are two separate things, as the BBC and other news sources revealed yesterday, that there is also a separate process, Article 127, for leaving the Single Market, or European Economic Area (EEA).

If the two are separate entities, and that the referendum asked only about leaving the EU AND the fact that the Conservative Party 2015 Election manifesto said that single market membership would be retained.

What does it mean? Well, there is another court case in the offing, when details of that emerged so did the existence of Article 127. Point being, if those who are supposed to be guiding Britain in leaving the EU, Brexit, and they do not know the leagl paths in this simple task, what kind of mess would they make of trade negotiations with the rump EU and the rest of the world? And why should we believe a word they say?

That this is being cheered on from the sides by most of the 4th Estate with little or no scrutiny, and the Labour Party having apparently also given up in being an opposition under Corbyn, unless the law and Reality intervene, then the Brexiteers are almost certain to get what they want, when they decide what that it is what they want.

Update:

Since writing this, it seems there are differing views on what this may mean, whether is a full member in its own right, of an associate member by virtue of being in the EU, so the act of leaving one will cancel out the other. But this is unclear. There might not be a legal challenge as in the Article 50 case, but would give cause for Parliament to legislate, given that membership of the EEA was a manifesto commitment.

It is also highly likely, that every step of the divorce will bring many, many such questions and unforeseen issues that might slow down the process. If we get that far.

This afternoon, the swivel eyed loons at UKIP announced they have changed their policy on Brexit, and now do not favour the Article 50 route, but annulling the 1972 European Communities act. Hard Brexit is not hard enough, it must be harder. And as a result the effects would be worse, which the loons would then blame anyone, everyone, but themselves. They really have no idea, not that they ever did.