That's what EU leaders are saying. “Marriage or divorce, but nothing in between,” said Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel. “Those who want free access to the European domestic market will have to accept the basic European freedoms and the other rules and duties which are linked to it” - Merkel. The UK will not be allowed to pick just the features they want from the EU.

Yeah, and nothing that they say on that topic matters. As long as the UK still lives up to its treaty obligations, they can't make them leave. And the EU so far has refused to negotiate anything before the UK starts the leave process in order to keep the best negotiating position it can. There's going to be alot of foot dragging whatever the outcome.

You realise all the "EU funding" is just them giving us back our own money, right? We're a net contributor. We could replace all the EU funding/subsidies with payments from Westminster and still have cash left over.

That's a bit of a faulty sum that excludes externalities though. If we end up outside the single market and the economic cost is substantial, then any reduction in EU contributions will be outweighed.

UK is a net beneficiary for research funding.

https://www.researchgate.net/blog/post/uk-scientists-rely-on...

> RG: What do you think Brexit’s impact on research and science in the UK will be?

> Wilsdon: On top of six years of flat funding from our own government, we now have to contemplate a significant reduction in research funding from Europe. It’s important to remember that the UK is a net beneficiary in this area: between 2007 and 2013 the UK received an estimated €3.4 billion more than it paid into the EU in terms of funding for research and innovation. So losing those funds will further destabilize our research system, and for some subjects, particularly in the social sciences, the proportion of EU funding is 20, 30 or even 40% of the total.