This is the way that Brexit ends: not with a bang but with a whimpering submission to EU standards on everything, billions in contributions to the EU purse – but with the pretence that we are not really rejoining the single market or customs union, honest. That was the position laid out by the Chancellor in her Mais lecture on Tuesday. She said the government would pursue a bespoke deal with the EU where divergence would be the ‘exception, not the rule’. What does that mean in practice? The EU has made it perfectly clear that it is not going to accept an à la carte menu on the single market; if you want to be in the club you are going to have to accept all its rules and pay all its dues. That will mean free movement, and accepting all social directives; although the current government seems determined........

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