As de Gaulle recognised, it would have been better for everyone if we had never joined the European Union

The reality is that the EU has never been about genuinely free trade: it has always been about the construction of a new state, supposedly to avoid war.

 That meant bringing down internal borders and harmonising, while erecting a Zollverein. 

The British couldn’t understand this: whereas we saw a liberalising and pro-competition programme, it was actually an attempt at using internal commerce as a vehicle for a political project.

To use Hayek’s terminology, the vision was constructivist.

Allister Heath Telegraph 9 Decenber 2020

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/09/time-eu-calamity-britain-disaster-europe/