If the much privileged access to the single market must come with free movement of labour then what the fuck was it all about then?

[AdrenalineFudge]

As in effect we've basically just decided to keep the status quo but with no seat at the table. Merkel and other EU leaders have said that access to the single market - essentially an EEA - deal would still require the UK to allow free movement.
If free movement was the backbone of the Leave campaign then we've effectively shot ourselves in the foot then we won't even be allowed a place at the negotiating table yet must abide by EU law in order to trade with the bloc.
What a mess!

What May will do is make non-EU immigration even harder, in a brutal no-holds-barred attempt to get the immigration figures down

But that's unfair. That was a key point of Leave. To make it fair and not to discriminate.

Maid I understand how it looks - on re-reading it I can see how it could be otherwise interpreted.

Maid

Actually she may already have some aces up her sleeve, because there have been some recent changes in immigration law (higher income requirements, not letting students stay when they finish their courses) that will probably bring the non-EU figures down in due course. As Home Secretary she probably has a better feel for this than anyone else.

In addition, she will know that immigration follows the economic cycle. If Britain's jobs market looks less attractive, immigration WILL fall. This effect could be multiplied by the UK currently looking like a very unwelcoming place for migrants. Eastern Europeans who have faced abuse in the streets are probably going to tell family and friends back home about this.

At the same time, emigration will rise: EU migrants currently employed in city jobs will relocate if their jobs move, and recessions also tend to result in more Brits trying their chance abroad.

So, if I were Theresa May, I might be betting on a natural fall in net migration to take some of the heat out of this argument.

That was a key point of Leave.

And? Add it to the list of broken promises.

Look, I'm not saying any of this is right. But if May gets in, and I think she probably will, she has form here.

Mistigri That said wrt making non-EU immigration harder; then what was the point. As that could have been implemented without the EU ref. I wonder if (British) people conflated the idea of 'free movement of people' with 'immigration'. An Indian doctor would still have to jump through hurdles, more so than a European fruit picker. And what we have / will have now makes that process even easier. Single market = Free movement. Tough shit for Indian doctor, better for European fruit picker. And all that whilst we won't have a place at the negotiating table.

I wonder if (British) people conflated the idea of 'free movement of people' with 'immigration'.

Clearly some of them did. I think, politically, it probably does not matter where the fall in immigration comes from as long as there is a fall. And the events of the last week have ensured that there will be.

However I can't see a way out of this that doesn't result in more or less the status quo

The status quo on worse terms.

The status quo on worse terms. with a recession and a rise in intolerance thrown in.