If making a final decision seemed too risky for the Prime Minister, her deliberate indecision has now proved even more dangerous.
Even Whitehall’s fiercest advocates of the need to stay as close as possible to the EU recognise that there are risks in being a rule-taker not a rule-maker.
Yesterday, I wrote to the Chancellor with the support of 50 of the biggest and most established businesses in the Tees Valley, to call for a pilot scheme.
The full force of policy and how it is communicated will need to be wrapped in an overarching theme of securing a bright future for the country after Brexit.
That means taking back full control – then using our new-found independence to its greatest possible benefit.
Of course the Government must sell its vision and achievements, but we must also expose the hard left’s anti-democratic conduct and duplicity over Brexit.
The Opposition claims to honour the outcome of the referendum, while opposing the UK taking back control of its laws, its money, and its borders.
The deal’s internal contradictions are coming back to haunt it, to the confusion of May, Varadkar, Juncker, Barnier – the whole lot of them.
We must insist that an “in principle” agreement on trade be reached by the end of March 2018 – otherwise the EU will have us over a barrel.
Some said we would never get the conversation going. But now it’s ready to take place. Which should win the Prime Minister some Parliamentary respite.
The Prime Minister must reach an agreement which lays out clearly in black and white that the UK will not be relegated to the position of ‘rule-taker’.
Basically, we need to undercut the world. We can do so if we slash red tape and tax. Within a very short period there would be a pronounced Laffer Effect.