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  • I really hope not. The 2018-9 Labour fudge period on Brexit was painful, and any discussion of 'the' vs 'a' customs union firmly falls into that territory as far as I'm concerned.

    A customs union allows goods to travel between member states with fewer checks. To mitigate the damage of Brexit it would need to include at least the big three EU member states, so even just 'a' customs union with just those three would be close enough to 'the' customs union that the distinction isn't worth making. (And if it doesn't cover those member states, it won't mitigate the defects of Brexit and therefore won't help us!)

    I think the way Starmer is approaching Brexit is that he'll do everything he can short of rejoining the official mechanisms (i.e. CM/SOM/FOM) in the first term. Then once the financial benefits of doing the small stuff come in, he can point to it and use it as a springboard to consent for more formal arrangements. Fortunately there are a tonne of things we can do before we rejoin, including alignment on standards, import/export checks, Erasmus, space gubbins, what have you, and the good thing about that is that the more we behave like a normal partner to the EU, the more likely they are to trust that we'll be reliable in CU/SM/FOM negotiations.

    It's a good strategy I think. Not as bold as I'd want. But then I've called almost every major vote wrong for the last decade so probably Starmer's wise not to listen to what I want.

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