Admittedly, I don’t know much about Brexit, but from what I have been exposed to, it seems like a decisively economical and political impairment that made travel and business with the rest of Europe more difficult and costly. Since it is so highly criticized as a terrible move, why doesn’t the UK just rejoin the EU?
The ones who fucked our country don’t want to admit they were wrong.
The party that’s been in charge of our country has been dismantling and selling everything worthwhile for over a decade, and the only viable alternative party seems to be running on “we don’t want to change anything major, but at least we’re not those guys” because they’re too scared to say anything after their last leader got torn apart constantly by the right-wing press.
I’m honestly worried about what we’ve become and how everything is just getting worse here. Nobody seems to have any hope for the future anymore, there are no positive things to look forward to, just a constant spiral of rising costs and declining health and public services.
The UK political cycle:
- Tories elected because they made people think Labour were bad with money
- Tories stay in power for a couple of decades
- Rich people get richer, public services get shitter, prices for everyone else get higher. They coast along on a tide of right-wing populism for awhile
- Eventually people catch on, Tories get voted out
- Labour need to spend a fortune getting things back on track. Might get two terms.
- Go to 1.
This is also the Canadian political cycle, it seems.
US as well!
This is why we desperately need PR to break the two party cycle.
Definitely.
I guess they are currently at step 2 or 3…
Steps 3, 4. If you have a look at the current polling.
The sad truth is it will need to get much worse until conservatives will admit there is a problem and let progressives solve it.
It has always been this way. You either live in a progressive, upwardly moving state with improving quality of life or you get stuck in a conservative, stagnant or downward trending place where people are more concerned with “others” than they are with doing anything productive as a society. As a species, we seem to slowly wobble back and forth between these extremes. It’s maddening.
There are a lot of reasons, but I think it boils down to the people in charge do not want the embarrassement of crawling back to the EU.
It would be total ego destruction and that is simply untennable. This is what happens when the right gets enough power to make a change and then has to experience consequences.
Something something leopards and faces.
Not only that but the EU doesn’t want to make it seem like people can come and go as they please. So they will make serious demands for rejoining.
Exactly. UK will be adopting the Euro next time.
I forget what other significant concessions there were.
Schengen membership and no rebate are the 2 big ones aside from the euro iirc
If the EU are feeling particularly salty they might add the metric system but that’s not a current condition of membership afaik
Possibly switch to driving on the right, that’d be good
That won’t happen because it would be an unreasonable requirement and for no real point.
It would require a ridiculous amount of road maintenance and sign changes and it would be basically burning money. It would be like asking the French to correctly signpost things, utterly unreasonable.
What do mean ?
Doesn’t “touts directions” tell you everything you need to know? /s
Shhh, it’d be fun
Yeah exactly, not to mention that the EU has called the UK “a trouble maker” in regards to the UK rejoining.
They weren’t wrong, were they?
I got the impression the modern British are an extreme manifestation of “truth hurts”.
This is the big one, admitting it was a mistake.
it’s like an unstable ex-girlfriend trying to get back together. and now she’s down on her luck with even less to offer.
UK just needs to suck a few dicks and we’re all good ;)
Idk about you but I’m not letting Boris anywhere near my dong.
I think you meant Mr. Sunak, which is only a marginal improvement.
There are a number of reasons but the biggest is, they simply can‘t.
There is no rejoining, you would have to apply for membership again. That process takes years even if every member is friendly towards you, which in case of the UK is not the case.
A rejoining is also currently not beneficial for the EU. So they have little incentive to allow it. The drain of firms towards the mainland is just starting and the EU needs that process completed and some time extra to flourish before they can think about talks about rejoining.
Another problem is the UK itself. While heavily divided, an absolute minority of voters are politically in line with where the EU is currently and where the EU is heading. So rejoining would be a hard sell in the UK.
Does the UK still meet the requirements of joining?
Unclear at the moment, there are so many requirements it is hard to keep track especially with the legal situation in the UK.
They basically demolished some mandatory EU laws like equal pay. But then again there is no protection in the UK system and you can just change every single law with a simple majority vote.
Some of the new trade deals could hinder them, since you can not bring all goods into the single market.
The member vote is the real roadblock for the UK, the basic requirements shouldn‘t be a problem with the current legal system of the UK.
Britain had a highly favourable agreement with the EU that it negotiated decades ago. If it wanted to rejoin, it would do so without those privileges.
No more £ for you.
they can £ sand
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Also a rebate, as one of the top 3 economies we should have paid a lot more in than we were.
Despite her being associated with Euroskeptics I suspect even Thatcher would have been a Remainer.
While that it is definitely true, her reasons would be that it is easier to control and weaken the EU from the inside than from the outside.
As much as Brexit was a stupid idea that’s hurt all parties involved, I find it hard to believe that the EU would deny any and all membership benefits for the UK purely out of spite. UK with pounds is still better for the EU than no UK at all.
It would almost certainly be a less favourable deal than before, but I’m sure the UK could negotiate some privileges for itself.
I find it hard to believe that the EU would deny any and all membership benefits for the UK purely out of spite.
It is not out of spite. More like a “Fool me once” situation. Brexit has cost the EU a lot - not as bad as it is for the UK, but still. If the UK ever rejoins, they would have to make sure that such a shit show never ever happens again. If only to sell it to the EU members who all have to be convinced that the UK will be a good boy from that point on.
If the Brexit train wreck proved anything, it’s that the EU isn’t as impressed with the UK as the UK thinks they are. Almost all attempts to strike a good deal were rejected, and the UK got rushed into a hard Brexit after years of nothing.
Remember, the EU isn’t just about money and trade. It’s also about unifying the European people. Some countries are in it just for the money, but they’ll at least keep up the pretenses that they want to work for a united Europe. The UK made their opinion about these ideals quite clear while politicians tried to out-nationalism each other during Brexit, and I don’t think other countries will just forget about it.
I doubt EU politicians will let the UK get away with all of their exceptions and privileges a second time.
Screw England, let’s just let Scotland and Wales join without them
Wales voted out
if we held the referendum again - no new voters, everyone votes exactly the same as they did before - remain would win simply because enough elderly leave voters have died since then that now it would swing the other way, so its likely is sentiment is not trending positive
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U forgot abt northern ireland
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I doubt u could reunify without mass deportation or genocide of half the population I think the best option is becoming our own country and joining the ru before reuniting. Sure no ones happy at first but it’s the only way to keep the peace.
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Extremely based opinion
Fuck you, what can you bring to EU?
It would be smart, but their pride forbids it. Besides, when re-joining, they would start off like any other member, not as privileged as they were before thanks to Thatchers blackmailing. And they would have to ditch the pound in favor of the Euro, which would be the most painful thing.
But on the long run, they will have to come back. It is not a question of “if” but just “when” if they want to survive, and the longer they take, the more painful it will be.
Sure. There’s an application process; supposedly they can apply. It will take years, with a lot of conditions, and none of the previous exemption they had.
Pride.
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My question is if the EU would even want the country back. Would you want to deal with a country that flip-flops that hard?
IMO the flip-flop would basically kill any bargaining capacity from the UK. Before it was * but what if we leave, we’re stronger together and you have more to loose by letting us leave than by giving us a small concession* now it’ll be Why do you want any special concession ? You’re a new member like any other and have to abide by the same rules
IMO, it would show the power and value of the EU. The UK would be far more willing to admit that they shouldn’t have left if they can get back in. The EU stands to gain from such a prominent country (and one that can say so from experience) undeniably admitting that it’s better to be in the EU than to leave. That’s some stellar advertising of the economic value of the EU.
Though they definitely shouldn’t bend every rule to let them back in. The pound should be replaced by the euro. It’s dumb that the UK got that exception.
For sure. But UK would be admitted as a “regular” member, without many of the exemptions UK had before. I can imagine they might get the currency exemption this time around as well, though.
They made their decision to leave, now they have to deal with the consequences of that decision.
Try to remember that almost half of us did not vote to leave in the first place and knew it was a mistake. The Brexit vote was won on the tiniest of margins mainly due to a criminal misinformation campaign.
There was no mandate in that vote for the UK leaving the single market - something that those liars campaigning for Brexit said that we would never do. I firmly believe that all of the Brexit campaigners should be rotting in prison for the incalculable damage they did to our nation. Many people were tricked into voting against their best interests because they were told that leaving the EU would mean more money for the NHS, or it would protect their daughters from all the Turkish rapists joining the EU next week, or all the other total fucking nonsense the criminal liars told them through Facebook.
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The thing is your electorate let itself be manipulated like that and as you said the perpetrators are still very much at large. It follows they will manipulate the electorate again and there’s no reason to believe the same demographic won’t easily fall for new lies. (Unless they died off.)
This sucks for the Brits who knew better but it also means the EU would let an unreliable partner back in if nothing changed. It seems the pro Brexit crowd will need to learn the hard way that no really you were lied to and you still have to bear the consequences of your own actions (vote).
Being lied to isn’t an excuse to accept racist fearmongering and plainly suicidal economic reasoning. Nor is it an excuse for the project fear slander that happened at the time. They were lied to and were also told the truth. And you who voted to stay also need to learn that your vote doesn’t abdicate Britain either. You’re in this together.
Oh, I totally agree with how it happened, the point is, it happened, and a good deal of the people who made it happen , are still in power. The problem is no onw will do anything about it. As you say, almost half didn’t vote for it, but over half did, and there-in lies the problem. “they were lied to” Yeah, but they voted based on those lies.
You only needed a slim 50% to split? Not like a 2/3rds majority?
Yup. And the rerendum wasn’t even legally binding.
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I think humans tended to do such epic face plants for a lot longer. But these days every idiot and their dog has a smartphone to record everything and an internet connection to share it to the world. You look a lot more silly with your epic face plant if it’s captured in 4K and broadcast to the world.
Random side note: if you want to hear about a rather epic historical face plant there’s a good video on the Erfurt latrine disaster on YouTube.
It’s not an on-off relationship.
Assuming the UK could get itself together and find the political willpower to do so…it still won’t be easy. The EU has to agree to it, and it would require all members of the EU approving them rejoining.
As I recall, the EU warned them that if they left it would be very challenging for them to rejoin. The idea was to discourage them from leaving the EU in the first place. But they did. And now they have to live with the consequences.
I really would like to see reactions from France if Britain makes moves to rejoin.
It’s like thinking about marrying your ex-wife again, just after you went through an awful divorce, that took years to get accomplished, which you had insisted in. It would make you look somewhat stupid and the question is whether your ex-wife would let you move back in to your former house (i.e. the EU). Who knows…
You wanted it, you got it, now live with it!
Sure, but in this analogy, your ex wife was great partner that was good for you and you only broke up because you thought you could do better. Only after your divorce, you realize you aren’t actually doing better on your own and want your ex wife back, but are too afraid to admit it. And also your ex wife might not want you back anymore (if she does, she’s gonna ask you to really prove you’re committed).
Yes but also you got all your mates and family together in one room, told them you’re confused and you don’t know if you should go back to her or not, and swore on your penis that you will go by the concensus in the room, which after a lot of debate they collectively decided that you should not go back to her.
Also your mates and family don’t really get how your marriage worked and didn’t like your ex’s politics for confused reasons.
Not a good analogy. Really not.
Why not?
Because there are about 4 billion other women on the planet you could date, and according to my emails, at least hundreds in your local area.
There are no other horny global trading blocs in Britain’s local area.I see what you mean.
