As globalisation progresses we will see the EU

That is why the EEA/Efta model is the best of both worlds. It retains our market access for the most part, while maximising our trading autonomy and giving us more say in the creation and the rules the EU adopts. As globalisation progresses we will see the EU folding its own distinct regulation in with global market rules and so the trend is EU obsolescence.

Now you can argue that there are consequences to using a top level opt-opt or veto in that it places limitations on market access to certain products - but that really is for our own government to decide if the trade-off is worth it.

Some of our industries are strategic national assets and require some degree of protection. The whole question of our globalised age is how liberal is too liberal? Is everything to be wide open to global competition? Is everything to be sacrificed on the altar of free trade even if that means the death of our agricultural sector and consequently rural husbandry?

I couldn't even begin to answer those questions but as a nation that is for the process of deliberation of parliaments with sovereign powers. Powers that we do not have as EU members - where we are subject to one size fits all policy making with only notional defences. Certainly our rabble of MEPs who are nearly always outvoted is hardly a means of defence.