Most of our trade already is on WTO. There is no cliff edge.

There are two battles going on at the moment. 

The first is that being fought by those who believe in the European Project.  The steady move towards a United State of Europe.  The European army.  A single currency.  A single foreign policy.  A single tax system.  

People like the Liberal Democrats think this is the way to go.  And while I disagree with that direction of travel, it is right we should have the debate about that.  We should decide if that is the way we want to go.  That was the purpose of the Referendum.  To decide if we want this to be the direction of travel.  Or not.   

The people decided that was not where they wanted to go when faced with the two options on the ballot paper.  That was, do you want to remain part of the EU or leave the EU.  And people voted to leave.  But the Liberal Democrats didn’t like the result and think the people got it wrong and are keeping up this battle.  

The second battle is by those who are either deliberately or by ignorance re interpreting what was on the ballot paper.  They use explosive language.  They talk of crashing out.  They talk of disaster.  They conjure up scenarios of doom from the ports closing to ships across the Channel to flights not flying.   

But ask any of them to specify exactly why leaving the EU with WTO terms they are stumped.  Yes, they come up with the slogans.  But I have yet to find a single person who can actually explain why companies like JCB who already do about 70% of their trade on WTO terms are going to be worse off with everything being done on WTO.   

The reality is, they can’t.