Clarification? No longer easy!!
A soft Brexit is usually taken to refer to one that keeps Britain closely aligned with the EU. The objective is to minimise the disruption to trade, to supply chains and to business in general that would be created by diverging from the EU’s regulations and standards, thereby reducing the cost of Brexit. In practice, a soft Brexit means staying within both the EU’s single market (like Norway) and its customs union (like Turkey). Soft Brexiteers are willing to be bound by EU rules and tariffs even though Britain will lose any say in making them. They also accept the inevitable consequence that it will be hard, even impossible, for Britain to do any trade deals with third countries.
A hard Brexit rejects the whole idea of close alignment. The goal is to escape burdensome EU regulations and tariffs, so as to be able to draw up rules and customs arrangements of Britain’s own choosing. In practice, a hard Brexit means leaving both the single market and the customs union. Hard Brexiteers believe that staying in either would turn Britain into a “vassal state” of the EU. They are willing to accept the short-term disruption and potentially high costs of breaking free from Brussels, because they believe that the long-term gains from better regulation and the striking of free-trade deals all round the world will do more than enough to offset them.
What next?
Since Boris Johnson was elected as the Prime Minister it looked increasingly likely that the UK was heading for a ‘hard Brexit’. In such a scenario there will be many questions asked about the movement of personnel and goods between the UK and EU countries. Many of the EU countries have said that there will be arrangements put in place to keep the ‘status quo’ as far as travel is concerned and some have also said that similar arrangements will be adopted to allow UK nationals to continue working within the EU.
However, in the short time that Boris Johnson has been Prime Minister there have been more twists and turns in the political landscape than the 99 bend “Road to Heaven” in China. (It’s unlikely that any of the current politicians will ascend the road to its ultimate goal!)
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