The case Brexiteers should make for Brexit

Why are Brexiteers rubbish at making the economic case for Brexit? On a whole range of things from three pin plugs to driving on the left, the UK is so often the odd man out in Europe. So why shouldn’t Britain be better off making its own laws and regulations, instead of making do, as we have done for the last 50 years, with trying to fit our sprawling messy economic life into a one-size-fits-all framework cooked up in Brussels kitchens over too much midnight oil?

We have heard a lot of talk recently about the Single Market being a British invention, a way of exporting the Thatcher revolution to our nearest neighbours. That much is true. However, as someone who was in Brussels at the time, I saw how quickly disenchantment set in when in sector after sector hallowed practices and vested interests got in the way.

Take the example of Boots, as it then was (before being swallowed up by US giant Walgreens), which once had high hopes of exporting its model of supermarket-style pharmacies to Continental high streets, only to find that in much of Europe dispensing chemists can only be owned by qualified pharmacists, and that wasn’t going to change any time soon.