Therealwaldo
Vital Squad Member
They made offers around veterinary rules that would have made the export of food from the UK easier for our farmers. They also made an offer around reciprocal visa rules. That would have been particularly helpful for service industries that have people working in the EU for extended periods of times like engineers and architects. It would also have eased the need for carnets for the movement of equipment. That’s been a particular concern of performers like musicians who need to transport equipment. Each time the UK has refused on the basis that it (apparently) ties us to EU rules. The visa relaxation was rejected because of the paranoia about ‘control of borders. Of course everything is going swimmingly well as is so clearly demonstrated by the fact that we don’t seem to have two brass farthings to rub together.That is quite a change in approach, if true.
During exit negotiations, the one thing that the EU were most adamant about was that the UK could not cherry pick the parts of the relationship they would ideally like to keep.
Starmer has also been clear about not rejoining the EU OR being part of the customs union OR being in the single market. Clearly, we would not want to adopt the Euro or be tied to any rate mechanism or be in the Schengen area.
The only other suggestion I can think of is that it was rumoured that the EU may have said that the UK could have limited access to the market in return for making monetary contributions again.
You could understand why that was rejected, at least until the EU starts importing as much from us as we do from them.