Kudos
Don't you think all the argument ,procrastination etc is more damaging than either in or out. Its not the decision making UK look weak its the process we are going through now.
Personally dont think in or out is such a big deal. The status quo will be maintained either way..
It depends on what form 'out' takes?
If we just leave,then the EU will immediately put all the import tariffs that currently exist between the world and the EU onto between the UK and the EU.
Lets look at this in practice,take the product of bicycles,they have a 48.5% anti-dumping duty plus normal tariff,say from China to the EU (including the UK),55%....that makes it difficult to sell cheap Asian bikes into the EU(incl the UK).
If we just quit,like some ardent leavers insist on....'we voted leave,now get us out'....the EU will immediately look on the UK as a satellite of China.
This will be ok for selling in the UK but english bike manufacturers (Pashley/Brompton etc) would be hopelessly uncompetitive selling into the EU,they would take a big hit.
The same applies to cars,steel,alloy wheels,leather goods ....anything with high tariffs,this would result in many companies going bust and many redundancies in the UK.
Big companies would overcome this by shipping all current EU exports direct to Rotterdam and not Felixstowe,this would be a considerable loss of work and revenue in the UK
There would be the practical problem of every lorry shipping out of Dover would have to be custom cleared before EU entry,anyone who lives in Kent knows what a nightmare that could be.
We would end up a very inward looking country,content on our home market.
KudosDave