Re: What a surprise
It matters - because there was never a requirement to do anything so unbelievably stupid as to leave both the EU (which we could have done, it would have been damaging but survivable) *AND* the customs union/single market...
If you remember leaving the latter was always ruled out by those pushing the idea of leaving the EU.
Suddenly it became something that had been decided by a referendum, and therefore something that we had to do, ignoring the fact that we hadn't actually prepared for it at all.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
