English: Quads Aces, to represent poker games. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In reading this piece from Dr Alf, I am reminded of the phrase from the first Godfather film, “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”.
Mrs May’s ministers are divided, her civil servants are no good at negotiating, and opinion is split about the value of the “Single Market”.
As it is, we export very little to the Single Market and the foreign exchange we earn gets more than offset by loss of Corporation tax through the Dublin Financial District and Lichtenstein.
Passporting rights for banks can be retained by dint of a nearshoring Almo solution, using military forts like Seeland which lie beyond EU and UK territorial waters which is what internet service providers and server farm providers from America have been doing for more than 20 years. Banks and financial institutions with offices in the single market already remain unaffected by these passporting rules as do organisations with websites hosted outside the EU with shopping carts provided from elsewhere. They simply need to be owned by an EU company which can be owned by a brass plate entity in say the Seychelles with sales booked in one place and the bank account somewhere else.
Making the EU an “Offer it cannot refuse” is sensible but it has to be accompanied by calling in all UK top bosses and giving them the “Hard word” about executive pay and worker productivity. The hard word means legislating pay caps and providing export incentives and an end to rewards for failure and non delivery of improved shareholder value. For UK workers, it should mean tougher conditions for dole bludgers, no strike laws for essential public services, and caps on annual leave entitlements until productivity improves to upper decile levels.
Dr Alf's Blog 