So it looks like we will soon be one of only a handful of countries that are NOT inside a trading bloc

A couple of empty wildernesses
A couple of pariah states
And us

There's a reason these things exist, and we will soon discover it...

Because when it becomes obvious how hard and expensive it is to be outside a bloc - and believe me, Leavers, it WILL become obvious - we'll certainly have to try to join one again.

But which one?

Well, let's look at that map again. Notice something?

Every trade bloc is made up of neighbours. There are no non-contiguous blocs. None

We aren't going to join the African Union. NAFTA isn't going to open the books to an island 3600 miles away.

We are at the edge of a continent, with only one bloc next to us.

The EU

And sure, you can say "we don't mind the trade, but why do we need the political union too?"

Because that's what's available. Nothing else.

We can sit in the middle of the Atlantic waiting for a more comfortable life-boat to come along, or we can get in the one that exists.

And for all its "discomforts" (which do not damage your life one bit), the EU is the only trade bloc big or powerful enough to get equal terms from the USA and China.

And we share a land-border with it. It's right next door. And it wants us to be part of it.

We must be crazy.