When it comes to working up ideas for the end game outside of EU membership, I confess to being a bit of a geek. I’ve been working on alternatives to the EU for over 14 years. I chose to serve for nearly ten years on the European Parliament Trade Committee to seek to understand how trade deals work within the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and its global rules.

I fully recognise that finding a UK model is a headache, even mind-numbing occasionally: there is a huge learning curve; alternate models suddenly come into favour – and just as suddenly hit brick walls. There’s a distillation process by which, only over time and with the right perspective, is it possible to distil the whirring ingredients into a workable whole. No wonder the Cabinet has needed to take its time.

In this push for an acceptable solution, the notion of the U.K joining or rejoining EFTA (the European Free Trade Association of Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein and Switzerland) has now popped up as a proposed ‘solution’ – a claimed catch-all panacea.

Read the full article by David on the ConservativeHome website by clicking here