Staying in the single market for goods would have certainly helped with many of the logistical issues business and consumers have faced due to Brexit. But remember that the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement has at least allowed for tariff-free and quota-free trade in goods since Brexit - not as good as the single market, but at least not the worst possible outcome for goods trade.
The UK, however, is a service-based high-skill economy. From a growth and employment and competitiveness perspective, it’s trade in the service sector (and ultimately re-entry to the single market for services) that is the big prize we need to shoot for - where the Brexit agreement fell woefully short and which the Tories seemed clueless about the importance of it in the negotiations.They invested huge amounts of political capital in fighting over arrangements for fishing (which accounts for less than 0.1% of the UK economy) but basically never went in to bat on services (which accounts for about 80%).
Staying in the single market for goods would have certainly helped with many of the logistical issues business and consumers have faced due to Brexit. But remember that the UK/EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement has at least allowed for tariff-free and quota-free trade in goods since Brexit - not as good as the single market, but at least not the worst possible outcome for goods trade.
The UK, however, is a service-based high-skill economy. From a growth and employment and competitiveness perspective, it’s trade in the service sector (and ultimately re-entry to the single market for services) that is the big prize we need to shoot for - where the Brexit agreement fell woefully short and which the Tories seemed clueless about the importance of it in the negotiations.They invested huge amounts of political capital in fighting over arrangements for fishing (which accounts for less than 0.1% of the UK economy) but basically never went in to bat on services (which accounts for about 80%).