Why don’t the British like the EU?

You miss the obvious option & that is to leave the single market altogether & arrange a free trade agreement along the same lines as those being sought with the likes of Canada, Japan, Korea, Brazil & the USA. The UK doesn’t need access to a market it has a vast trading deficit with as much as the EU needs access to the UK market which if we left the EU would overnight be the EU’s single biggest export market bigger than both Japan & the USA combined. The UK has to abide by the standards of all the markets that it exports to be it America, Japan, Canada, Australia or China just as the EU has to abide by these rules & the EU would have to abide by UK rules to export its goods into the UK market this is not a hindrance to exports this is what happens already & to suggest this myth is a stumbling block to trade is erroneous & mischievousness. The UK is soon to be the 5th largest economy in the world its has the biggest reach across the world of any European group of countries with it’s network of Foreign & commonwealth Embassies & Consuls & it is one of the few countries still to have the ability to back up its diplomatic efforts with a big stick. The UK was a founding member of the WTO it has a permanent seat on the UN security council it supports both the IMF & the World bank & is a member of NATO. I think the UK is sitting pretty & without subsidising its competitors in the EU with net budget contributions we could use our money better & direct aid to more deserving cases than the Subsidy Junkies that joined the EU to fill their pockets with handouts.