Lilico: How significant a player could a CANZUK Federation be?
The following article appeared on the Conservative Home blog and is presented with the permission of the author.
I have written previously that I believe the key question for the UK with reference to the EU is not "Should we leave or not?" – regardless of the benefits the arrangement has provided to us so far, we will shortly have no realistic option but to leave. Neither is it "After we leave, should we have a Swiss-type, a Norwegian-type, or a Turkish-type agreement with the EU?" – obviously there will be some kind of trade agreement struck with our former EU partners, but that won't even make page 5 of the newspapers (just as when we make new trade agreements with India or South Africa, that doesn't make the front pages, either).
No, the key question isn't about our relationship with the EU at all. It's about what we should do instead. I've previously reviewed a number of the options and argued that the most plausible deep relationship post-EU would be with Canada and Australia, to which we can add New Zealand. Such a combination is often referred to by the acronym "CANZUK".
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