At the weekend Iceland decided in a referendum not to pursue accession negotiations with the EU. Iceland is already a treaty member of the EEA and EFTA so is a member of the single market and pays a contribution of ISK8billion pa (about $66m pa or 0.5% of its GDP) for the privilege (see www.government.is/news/article/what-eea-participation-costs-would-be-replaced-upon-membership/). The result was close enough (52.8%/47.2% on a turnout of 82.5%) but it’s pretty clear that EU membership is not a prospect that gets the country’s juices flowing and over the campaign polls shifted from a projected Yes vote of 53% to an actual Yes...