Goidie, when I was watching the news last night every single one of the EU leaders, including Merkel, were shown saying 'no access to single market without freedom of movement'. This is also what they all said during the 'negotiations' pre referendum campaign. They are also united on no negotiation without (article 50) notification, though they do seem to have resigned themselves to waiting for the Tories to sort themselves out for this to happen. Pretty clear that Merkel at least wants this to be an amicable process with a positive result for all, but I see no possibility of bending on freedom of movement. Indeed, a single market, the ultimate aim of which is harmonisation across states, is meaningless without it, it would end up as dysfunctional as the Euro, cementing competitive advantages where they already are. Cameron's argument in his negotiation was that the EU should only be about the market and competition, he lost that argument not with the EU bureaucracy but with the leaders of the 27 other countries. The dirigiste French, whether they are led by Hollande, Sarkozy or even I suspect Le Pen, are fundamentally against letting markets run free without strong direction. The Italians are pretty close to them, and they have both been arguing that the response to Brexit should be accelerated EU integration, especially within the Eurozone. We and the Germans used to act as a balance to this, now it's just the Germans.
What source of info do you have that I'm not seeing?