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They want to do away with regulation on the environment, worker and human rights and have access to a free market within Europe and the rest of the world. All the advantages with none of the rules. That's the Norway solution some tories are now trying to sell. It's the neo-liberal dream.
This does in no way whatsoever describe the situation in Norway. I reckon most people you ask would say Norway is doing OK in the worker rights department.
EU rules do apply in Norway, that's the condition for access to the single market. Anything else would be unfair competition.
starfish&coffee-
The Tory rightwing/brexitter/free marketeers have always had their knickers in a twist over the Working Time Directive, which as Francis O'Grady pointed out, first gave 2million UK prt-time workers holiday pay.
'Less regulation/less red tape' is their shorthand for repealing the WTD.
The pre-Article 50/'informal negotiations' will be all about weaselling out of the WTD,
at a minimum. -
Norway came into the single market with a system far to the left of what Britain and most of the EU has and very far to the left of what the tory Brexiteers want. In that sense Norway didn't need the more benign EU regulations.
I don't think Michael Gove's going to be banging his fists on tables in Brussels arguing for a society or an economy like Norway's. What they talk about is breaking free of regulation and keeping access to markets and freedom of movement. They're confident the EU will cave for fear of losing Britain as a market. Britain doesn't have a written constitution, it doesn't have a Bill of Rights (I'm not sure it has a rights culture at all.) A lot of that slack was taken up by the EU. Now it's gone.
They want Norway Plus.
I don't think you need to be a massive conspiracy theorist to work out what the 'plus' means.
mespilus
Fintan
I don't think the attitude to Greece and Britain compare really.
Greece got punished without economic reason because punishing it played well in German constituencies.
In Britain's case I don't really see what option the EU has but to go for a punitive settlement. They're not stupid. The people who have something to gain from Brexit are the economically hyper-liberal. They want to do away with regulation on the environment, worker and human rights and have access to a free market within Europe and the rest of the world. All the advantages with none of the rules. That's the Norway solution some tories are now trying to sell. It's the neo-liberal dream.
If they pull that one off, the EU crumbles for sure. The EU's best shot is holding on, waiting for the populist right to mood to change and pointing to a Britain in recession as a case study in what not to do.