IT almost goes without saying that I believe Scotland’s best future is an independent state within the EU, but it is worth being open about what some would call my own prejudices.

I also believe the remaining UK’s future will be best in the EU also, but meantime while we work towards (hopefully) those objectives, I live in the real world. This new UK Government has an opportunity, right now, to improve the mood music with the EU after the ruinous Tories wrecked the UK’s reputation, so the PM’s visits to Berlin and Paris this week are to be welcomed. But they’ll only go so far unless Labour really do do things differently.

The interesting question is to what extent Labour actually will improve things, or whether they just hope that not being the Tories will get them through.

Abolishing the Winter Fuel Payment, keeping the two-child benefit cap and PM Starmer’s “Things can only get worse” speech on Tuesday last week tell us that on the economy at least, it is going to be bad news all the way. It is of course valid to blame the previous government, but given the dugs in the street knew the economy is in trouble, it also tells us that the Labour campaign was fundamentally dishonest, wilfully saving the bad news for after polling day.

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They also don’t get to blame the Tories when the biggest single thing the dugs in the street also know is causing myriad difficulties to Scottish and UK businesses – Brexit – was their project too. It is real action, not rhetoric, on this that will be carefully watched in Brussels and member state capitals.

Sadly, while I welcome the absence of complete lunacy in the UK Government’s stance after the lows and lower lows of Johnson and Truss, I’m not convinced the omens are that good.

The recent rhetoric about making Brexit work better and finding new trade deals with presumably as-yet-undiscovered continents does not bode well for their seriousness in tackling the real problems businesses are suffering from. This matters because without addressing them, the UK will be locked in the very cycle of poverty, disinvestment and low growth that will derail their spending (and re-election) plans.

Last week, the very credible Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation, railed, rightly, against the Trade and Co-operation Agreement (the association agreement that governs the UK’s relationship with the EU), saying Brexit has been a disaster for business. It called for action to fix the damage – and I’d certainly agree on that – but cited as an example something that shows precisely the limits of the UK Government’s stated aims.

Most EU trade deals include the catchily titled “diagonal cumulation” clauses that allow components processed in a third country and then exported to the EU to still be considered to have originated in the EU. It is evidence of the friendly favoured status the trade deal confers and a huge advantage.

Make UK rightly laments that these clauses are not in the UK agreement. But they’re not there by some sort of oversight or accident, they’re absent because the EU didn’t grant them for the sensible reason that the EU does not want the UK to become a low-cost, low-standards assembly hub for export into the EU market.

This was clear from Michel Barnier’s team as far back as 2017. As the president of my old committee, German MEP Elmar Brok, enjoyed saying (often banging the table three times for emphasis), “Out means out”.

So the UK Government has an opportunity to reset relations, but there’s limits. I’d offer the Prime Minister my five-step plan for an actual reset.

Step One: Get real. The TCA is a bare-bones deal, deliberately, which you and Labour MPs voted for. Even at that, it is going to get worse with new border checks on goods and people (buckle up, kids!) due in mere months, which you supported.

Step Two: Stop pretending you can cherry-pick. Individual Labour folks have railed against the hardship individual sectors are experiencing, be it customs paperwork for flower imports, pet passports, touring musicians, school exchanges or lack of student access to Erasmus. All valid, but there is next to zero appetite in Brussels for special deals for particular sectors. Also, no EU state is ever going to prioritise its relationship with the UK over its relationship with the other 26 EU states.

Step Three: Be honest. The EU is not, no nay never, going to create a framework for the UK that is better than EU membership and there is zero appetite for new schemes given the Brits are now way down the to-do list in Brussels. If you’re serious about fixing the problems, it means you must apply to opt back in to things that already exist, that is the Customs Union, the Single Market and the EU itself. Those three are not the same thing, and come with different advantages and limits on the UK’s scope for policy deviation.

Step Four: Be bold. You have a stoating majority and a short honeymoon period, use it. Set an objective to rejoin now – if you can’t stomach actually rejoining the EU, my suggestion would be Customs Union and Single Market membership. Stop guddling about with the symptoms and argue for the cure.

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Step Five: Set a date for a rejoin referendum and give people time to mount a proper campaign. You’ll tear the Tories apart, actually show you’re serious about fixing the problems and will have much support from across the domestic political spectrum and will win some kudos in Brussels for taking the fight to the people.

Absent all this, I fear that the UK is going to tinker around the edges and rail against the effects of a flawed Tory deal that Labour backed, all the while things will slowly decay further. That will only feed a cynicism and populism that can only go badly.

There’s a lot at stake if Labour allow this moment to pass.