@FlyingCatGirl and @GasPanic ,
I think the truth is between your views, both of which you have elucidated well.
‘We are now exploring our agreements with other countries and they will begin to benefit us in the future. Our growth is currently better than the core, and Project Fear has nowhere near come to pass.’
You are right, the hysteria and hyperbole was ridiculous and project fear hasn’t come to pass. However, Brexit did do real and significant economic damage to the UK. The main estimates are 6-8% of GDP, or £100 bio/annum. That is 1.5x our current defence budget!
‘For security we still have NATO, our partnerships with the US and Australia, and our military alliances with Norway.’
This is very true. And we have the U.S, most importantly. Things change and Trump won’t be around forever. The U.S have been our most reliable ally for a very long time. I see Trump as the exception, rather than the rule.
‘Finally if the EU is to survive, it needs to Federalise. It does this by having strong members that want that process to happen. The UK isn't interested in greater Federalisation’
It has to either federalise or scrap the euro and become closer to a trading block, which is what most in the UK would prefer. This could be an issue next week or it could take another couple of decades, but it is inevitable.
‘The EU has everything to offer us! Extra help and resources to tackle illegal immigration, freedom of movement, good supply of fresh, decent produce which we indisputably need with the issues of global climate change! We may need their help with fuel supplies if things get worse, it would bring the prices back down in the supermarket that have become shocking since Brexit, it'll give subsidies back to farming, give more fishing quotas to our fishing industry - how farms, sea food factories and chip shops have shut since Brexit! We'd have access back to EU workforce to fill those care vacancies back up because nobody rushed off benefits to fill those jobs after we kicked the EU workforce out! And the fact that Brexit created vacancies and told the wider world to apply is why illegals flocked here!’
Some of this is true and some is nonsense! What resources on immigration would we get by joining the EU that we don’t already have? And we would have to accept our pro rata share of their asylum seekers, which is increasingly a problem.
Joining the single market, which I am strongly in favour of, would bring back free movement, so all the food issues would be sorted out. It would also financially get back over half of what we lost in Brexit according to a consensus of economists.
Freedom of movement is not a plus when you have vastly divergent economies. The EU recognised that when the Eastern Block countries joined, with a 7 year rule. Blair ignored it, which was disastrous for a lot of people (and massively contributed to Brexit). Things are much better now as GDPs have converged. However, we can always fill care vacancies legally with immigrants if we just allow them to come in, be that from India or Serbia. New nations joining the EU is not good short term. They are invariably much poorer and need help. That is a cost for many years before it becomes a benefit.
Proximity really matters when it comes to trade. There are few disadvantages to joining the single market and the advantages are obvious.
As for full membership, that is much more contentious. The EU was always a project and those at the heart always wanted a federation. I think that is tough with so many different languages and, more importantly, cultures. And, if you don’t federalise, you have the current midway house (aka total mess) that you have now, with a single currency and different fiscal and budgetary policies, which Ireland, for instance, has exploited to the max. And there is corruption and a democratic deficit. There are many good things about the EU, but also many bad things and risks.