A nation of shopkeepers who can't sell.

You own a shop.  You make and sell some rather nice things.  And people like what you make and sell, and they like to buy it at the price you are selling it.

That is how trade works the world over.

Now, imagine one day somebody walks by your shop window and says, “That looks nice, nice price too.  I will have one of these”.  So they walk in to your shop and up to your counter.  “I’d like one of these please”, they say.

Your reply?  “Sorry, do I know you; I don’t think I can sell to you.  You see, I’m only allowed to sell to certain people, it’s the club rules.”

“But I want to buy what you are selling” replies the person standing on the other side of your counter.

“Sorry”, you say.  “I think the club is negotiating with your people to see if we can sell to you. Until that is agreed, I’m afraid I can’t sell to you.”

Now, if that scenario happened in your shop, you would laugh.  Ridiculous.  It couldn’t happen.  But it does.  Day after day in the real world. 

Welcome to the world living inside the restrictive and economically fading EU.