Tony Blair and Andrew Adonis Cheap New England Patriots T-Shirts , his former Downing Street policy chief, have made separate if coordinated proposals for new controls on UK migration as a viable route back from Brexit and for the UK’s continued membership of the EU single market.
To some, the proposals appear like a pro-remain version of Boris Johnson’s love of having and eating cakes – another British offer to remain in the single market so long as Britain can destroy it. To others, it is an attempt to inject some political and strategic realism into the remain position.
The ideas lean heavily on the presumption that there is an untapped mood in France and Germany to help the British pro-Europeans. The Blair pamphlet makes references to a smattering of largely middle-ranking former ministers and a thinktank to suggest there is a mood for reform.
Lord Adonis suggests that French and German politicians might support free movement reform and make a direct appeal to the British people over the heads of the UK government next summer as the moment of Brexit arrives, thereby making a referendum on the terms feasible.
A similar claim about a hidden flexibility has been made for more than a year by Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister who does have good connections with senior liberal politicians on the continent. Blair has good European contacts of his own: for instance Cheap New England Patriots Hoodie , he visited the commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and met Sandro Gozi, the influential Italian European minister, in London last week.