Theresa May, writing in the Daily Telegraph and in an interview by Sky News, has finally stated her government’s position on the Single Market and the Customs Union.  It is good news for Brexiteers, who have feared all along that she would buckle under pressure from the City and the dateline corporations:

Asked repeatedly whether Britain will leave the Single Market, the Prime Minister said that she will not try to “keep bits of membership”.

Her comments suggest that Britain is prepared to leave the Single Market and the Customs Union and apply for a good deal from outside after Brexit.

... Asked if she will prioritise immigration controls over Single Market access, Mrs May said: “We are leaving, we are coming out, we are not going to be a member of the EU any longer.

“We will have control of our borders, control of our laws, but we still want the best possible deal for UK companies to trade with and operate within the European Union and also European companies to trade with and operate within the UK.

“We mustn’t think about this as somehow we’re coming out of membership but we want to keep bits of membership. What we must say is what is the right relationship for a United Kingdom that is no longer a member of the European Union. The best possible deal for the UK will also be a good deal for the EU.

“I am ambitious for what we can get for the UK in terms of our relationship with the EU because I also think that’s going to be good for the EU.”

Nationalists might want to think ahead to the possibility - say around the time the Conservative Party Manifesto for the May 2020 election is published - that the logic of border control segues into that of talking about demographics and the need for Britain to remain identifiably British; thus opening the pandora’s box of assimilationism versus racial preservationism.  The age of mass immigration is drawing to a close.  That change will necessarily define and refine our discourse.  We need to be ready for it.