Skip to main content
Democracy and independence, nation and labour
As the Brexit negotiations enter there last critical phase, DOUG NICHOLLS argues that socialists should return to some first principles to prepare to rebuild Britain as an independent country after March 29
EU flags

If good trade union negotiators had been asked to take the biggest mandate ever given in British history and negotiate leaving the EU, it would be done by now. We wouldn’t have been bullied by the Brussels bureaucrats.

It’s not rocket science — come out of the single market and customs union, come out of the common fisheries policy, the common agricultural policy,and jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, pay up any legitimate outstanding dues and liabilities. Voila.

Bearing in mind that the EU needs our market more than we need its, we would negotiate no-strings trading terms that would advantage the rebuilding of our economy.

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (centre front) stands with L
Features / 16 July 2024
16 July 2024
DOUG NICHOLLS, chair of the think tank Rebuild Britain, encourages creative engagement with the new government on economic matters particularly
Delors TUC
Features / 30 December 2023
30 December 2023
DOUG NICHOLLS, former general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions and lifelong campaigner against the European Union, reflects on the recent death of one of the main architects of the EU
U.S. President Joe Biden, right, and Chinese President Xi Ji
Features / 16 November 2022
16 November 2022
The GFTU has been running education courses on what is really happening in China and the US, Doug Nicholls reflects on some of the learnings and the importance of the recent US-China talks in Bali
Community organisations Acorn and Southwark Defend Council h
Features / 19 October 2022
19 October 2022
In the second of a two-part feature for TUC week, DOUG NICHOLLS, general secretary of the General Federation of Trade Unions discusses the underestimated strength of community organisations and the value of a new working relationship with trade unions
Similar stories
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer (centre front) stands with L
Features / 16 July 2024
16 July 2024
DOUG NICHOLLS, chair of the think tank Rebuild Britain, encourages creative engagement with the new government on economic matters particularly
Newly elected Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gives a speech
Features / 9 July 2024
9 July 2024
Communist Party leader ROBERT GRIFFITHS dissects the election results, looking at all of the political spectrum, from the hard right to the far left, and assesses the political landscape it reveals
Catarina Martins and Mariana Mortágua during a demonstrati
Rise of the right in Europe / 31 May 2024
31 May 2024
In an interview with Carmela Negrete, the Left Bloc’s CATARINA SOARES MARTINS calls for economic policies that improve peopleʼs lives to defeat the extreme right
Giorgia Meloni
Rise of the right in Europe / 27 May 2024
27 May 2024
In the first of a series on the rise of the European far right, independent leftist journalist GIULIANO MARRUCCI says that Italyʼs coalition, since taking office, has completely adapted to the Establishment