//The EEA members prove it.//
The three EEA members which are not EU members (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) are “associate members” of the EU by any other name. They largely comply with EU legislation apart from the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy (though quite how much either of those – especially the latter – would affect Liechtenstein is not entirely clear), They pay into the EUs budget (see below), they are subject to the free movement of people and they are subject to the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Their relationship with the EU is governed by an EU directive rather than a bilateral treaty. The payments made by the three are used to “…reduce social and economic disparities in Europe.” These contributions amount to something like €0.7 billion per annum and the sum is made available for “project funding in the 15 beneficiary states in Central and Southern Europe.” Quite why they should contribute to nations (which the EU calls “states”) in Central and Southern Europe is not entirely clear, but they do so nonetheless. For all of that compliance and contribution they get no representation in any of the EU’s institutions. So hardly a good model for a country that is trying to rid itself of the pernicious influence of the EU.
//…but it is rather fanatical and dismissive to insist there was never any brexit except hard brexit.//
The notion of “hard”, “medium” and “soft” Brexits amused me throughout the past four years. There can only be one form of Brexit. That is where the UK ceases to be a member of the EU and is no longer bound by any of its legislation or subject to the whims of any of its bureaucrats. You cannot be a “partial” member of any association; you are either a member (when you pay all the dues and obey all the rules) or a non-member (when you don’t do any of those things). Countries in the world are either members of the EU (27) or they are not (about 170). The trading relationship we will follow with the EU has nothing to do with our being a member. The problem was the EU (and some of our own politicians) tried to insist that it was.
BTW, I don’t mind being branded an extremist. That is quite a subjective description and in your interpretation it obviously applies to anybody, of any nation, who wants to see his nation’s affairs determined by its own Parliament without having to seek confirmation of its decisions from a supranational, unelected clique. Most of the 170-odd non-EU nations all seem to manage without that restriction and many of them fare far more prosperously than most EU nations do. But a bit less of the “swivel-eyed”, please. There’s no call for it. I have been carefully studying the EU and its predecessors since 1992, when it became clear to me what path the Euromaniacs had decided to pursue. I know quite a bit about the EU and its associated cousins. There was nothing “swivel-eyed” in my decision in that year that I would, if ever given the chance, vote for the UK to leave the EU. Nothing in the 24 years between then and the referendum caused my eyes to swivel (or my mind to change) and I assumed that the Brexit we would get would be near enough what we have (apart from the NI issue and the fishing problem). I fully expect the NI issue to be addressed properly when time permits. But let’s keep the conversation civilised. During the last four years I have been branded a bigot, a xenophobe, a racist, a swivel-eyed loon, a Little Englander and much more besides. Water off a duck’s back because I am none of those things. But I don’t engage sensibly with anybody who bandies those terms about.