Quote Originally Posted by KerrAvon View Post
Were the EU to give us membership of the Single Market without freedom of movement the Swiss, the EFTA countries and some EU members would all kick off and ask why they can’t have a bit of that. That’s why the EU can’t afford to budge on the point and won’t do so. In addition, it would be the equivalent of cancelling a gym membership, but then expecting to be allowed access to the pool and the changing rooms. And the gym.

It aint going to happen.

I can understand why Labour are taking the point, because, frankly, they don’t have much else to say on Brexit, but it’s just political posturing. It’s also dangerous for the party, because some of the people wo traditionally vote for them will notice that they appear to be flirting with free movement, which might just persuade them to go with UKIP again.
From what I can see the Labour party are positioned on arguing for retaining the benefits of the single market and for controlled migration that services skills gaps. Obviously this could be taken as a neo-liberal position - servicing the economy by continuing to import cheap labour to maximise profits instead of investing in skills. Corbyn has said much on this previously but not in recent times and I personally wish that he would highlight it more: who wouldn't want us to invest in home grown skills and not import labour on mass to fill in the gaps for this economic short-term profit-making short term ism? I think to make more of this stance would appeal to those voters concerned with jobs and I'd like to hear more on it from us. Not sure there is much to lose from this stance either - it does require investment to 'skill up' the local work force and to make the wages attractive to local workers but I think most would support this? (Apart of course those employers, big and small, who are using imported labour to maximise profits in the short term!)