The right way to do Brexit

AS WE went to press, the cabinet was due to enter an extended session in order to hammer out what kind of Brexit is best for Britain. Ministers are at loggerheads over the relationship the country should have with the European Union. Time is short. With just over a year until Britain leaves the EU, leaders of the 27 other member states, who will meet in March, are frustrated. Britons on both sides of the Leave/Remain divide need to plan ahead. All they get is blather and contradictions.The government is groping towards a “hard” Brexit, leaving both the single market and customs union. The prime minister, Theresa May, seems to believe that this is the only way to honour the result of the referendum. On that view, a “soft” exit, into an arrangement closer to that of Norway, is unacceptable because it fails to secure the independence of the courts, the freedom to strike new trade deals and the ability to limit immigration. It would render Britain a “vassal state” that, to add insult to injury, would have to pay the EU a vast annual levy.