ah, but freeports? They're not allowed in the EU

The worse that might happened is a non spoken path to it. Indeed, belonging to the Union requires a clear political consciousness and willingness: to share its sovereignty with other people is not something you do unaware.

And long may it continue... but all it takes is for a Tory and/or Reform government to get into power, and all the advances made so far could be swept away in weeks. I think that's why rejoining the Single Market is so urgent - we in the UK need to see concrete monetary benefit from UK-EU relations.