A large part of the vitally important debate about Britain’s future in or out of the European Union will be based around a simple question which raises a whole host of complicated answers.
What would “out” look like? For those who back Britain remaining in the EU, the answer is pretty bleak, BBC reported.
If the UK wanted to trade with Europe, the country would still have to be bound by the rules of the EU which would be set – if Britain left – with little regard to this country’s opinion. We would not, those pro-the-EU argue, have a seat at the decision-making table.
In fact, we would be particularly weak because the remaining EU member states might very well want to teach Britain “a lesson” that being out of the union is not a free hit.
The chief executive of JCB, Graeme Macdonald, does not agree. In an interview in The Guardian Monday morning he said that the UK is far too important a trading nation to be simply pushed to one side. As an example, he points out that Britain is Germany’s fourth largest market for car exports.
Macdonald also argues that being in the EU is not some form of free trade panacea. “It’s easier selling to North America than to Europe sometimes,” he says.
The chairman of JCB is Lord Bamford, the Conservative peer and major donor to the party. In an interview with BBC Midlands, Lord Bamford said: “We are the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world. We could exist on our own – peacefully and sensibly.”
This is a key part of the “nothing to fear” argument about the EU and I suspect it will be a strong theme for those who do not reject EU exit out of hand. Interestingly, the “nothing to fear” formulation has been deployed in the past by two figures who will have considerable sway on the issue within government.
