Germany

[TortoiseSmile]

So, the German Finance Minister has told Britain in no uncertain terms that "Vote Brexit and you lose single market access". Following on from Merkhel's similar threat a couple of weeks ago ... in case we hadn't got it.

All I can say is "very brotherly love" (Eddie Izzard R U listening?). Especially since we import more stuff from Europe than we export! Or maybe they just want Turkey to themselves .

Obviously I'm a Brexit supporter but that "intervention" left a particularly bad taste in the mouth.

Surely you're bright enough to understand that if we leave the EU, we will initially if not permanently lose access to the single market? That is the premise from which the EU evolved.

Also Britains problem is that we export nothing. A buyers power is nothing compared to a sellers.

Norway is not in EU, but has access to single market. So we are being made a special case of here!

I am sure you are right that our exports are poor, but listening to the radio today I heard only 5% of our exports went to Europe, but that we import far more from them.

Norway & Switzerland have to pay an enormous amount of money to be allowed access to the single market. This is what scares me most should we come out: we could end up in a similar position, where we end up paying billions to the EU but have absolutely no say in anything they do.

Not really. Norway has never been a member state. It's negotiations wrt trade are entirely different because of that.

My above comment is in response to the op, not Vix.

Also, a Brexit will have to be "punished". The EU will have to make an example.of the UK to discourage other countries from leaving ....

What Alis said. There's a difference between never having been a member and having been a member but choosing to come out.

I don't think it's realistic to choose to leave and then expect Germany et al to be falling over themselves to offer favourable terms.

What we import is irrelevant and not giving us any power. They can easily find other customers to buy their goods. It's much harder for us.

The Scandi argument doesn't work either our economy is no way as strong as theirs.