Barriers to understanding

I see various Tory MPs are now demanding David Cameron avoids an in-out referendum on the EU mainly on economic grounds.
They say: “Senior business figures don’t want the UK to play a lesser role in the EU. They fear, as we know you do, the danger to British business and jobs of the UK being on the wrong side of a tariff barrier which could fatally undermine our government’s policy of rebalancing the economy so that we boost manufacturing and reduce unemployment.”

Everyone wants free trade between Britain and Europe but we are told escaping the clutches of the Superstate would somehow cause irreparable damage.

Why on earth would our friends across the English Channel want to boycott British goods and provoke a trade war?

Just consider these official HMRC statistics: UK exports to the EU totalled £13.1 billion in November. Imports totalled £18.2 billion. The trade gap was £5.1 billion.

Our trading partners in Europe would lose more than we would if anything stopped the free flow of goods and services. So they have a clear financial interest in working with us, not against us, in ensuring relations between an independent Britain and the EU were unaffected by the re-assertion of our sovereignty.