Access to the EU market was never really a big advantage for the UK because the EU's internal market never did much beyond physical goods, but the UK was/is str

Access to the EU market was never really a big advantage for the UK because the EU's internal market never did much beyond physical goods, but the UK was/is strongest in services. Unifying trade in services never became a priority for the French/German controlled EU institutions, and was sometimes outright opposed by them, meaning the UK benefited far less than is commonly argued it was more like other countries having great access to the UK market but not vice-versa. Moreover the EU had and still has a completely imperial attitude towards the UK, as they perceived leaving as impossible so figured they could do whatever they wanted to Britain. See how they were constantly attempting to screw with or outright steal the City financial industry, like by trying to forcibly relocate it to other areas of Europe. That sort of thing was also happening before the referendum even got started. Most people in the UK don't have a good view towards the EU for this sort of reason. Remain had to rely heavily on fear-based arguments in order to shore up the 'natural' level of positive EU support which would otherwise have been far too low (~a third, iirc). "From a business perspective, the most perfect regulatory framework is inferior to a bad regulatory framework that allows you access to a much bigger market" Yeah? Tell that to all the people and companies fleeing China after years of arguing that there were no limits to what made sense to do, to get access to the world's largest single market. I don't think it's very hard for the UK to follow in America's footsteps. Most of the big economic differences are a combination of legal and cultural, not anything fundamental. US culture is to some extent a derivative of British culture after all!