Exit Plan For UK/EU Earns Finalist Spot in Competition

WASHINGTON, Oct. 31 – How might the United Kingdom best extract itself from the European Union?  A plan focused on deregulation and put forward by Iain Murray, vice president of strategy and director of the Center for Economic Freedom at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and Rory Broomfield, Deputy Director of The Freedom Association and Director of Better Off Out, has earned a spot in the final round of a “Brexit” contest by one of Britain’s leading think tanks, the Institute of Economic Affairs.

“It’s a great honor to be shortlisted together with as principled an organization as The Freedom Association,” said Murray, who hails from the UK. “We partnered with TFA to demonstrate how CEI’s ideas for reducing, simplifying and eliminating the regulatory burden can work in practice. If Britain does leave the EU, there will be a chance to show that a modern bureaucratic society can indeed reinvent itself based around principles of free markets and limited government. We hope to help the UK make that happen.”

“We are delighted that our joint submission with the Competitive Enterprise Institute has been shortlisted for this prestigious prize,” said Broomfield. “It is a fantastic opportunity to put our case for how the UK would be Better Off Out of the EU. I look forward to working with our friends at CEI to design a detailed plan that will help policy makers realize this goal.”

Concern over crushing regulations and sinking economic conditions brought about political pressure in the UK to do the once unthinkable – leave the EU. In fact, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats both have pledged to vote on the question after the 2015 general election. The question for Brexit advocates is: “how?”

As the IEA has emphasized, an “Out” vote in the British referendum would be a “major historic geo-political and economic event, perhaps even comparable with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union and re-unification of Germany.”

The contest entry by Murray and Broomfield – one of 20 finalists – suggests guidelines for withdrawal, what economic and political consequences will be in store and how the UK could best position itself as a more independent nation and economy.

The top prize winner will receive €100,000, to be awarded in February, 2014.