To wish Starmer would make a unilateral decision to rejoin the EU?

[Wildflowers99]

That’s all, really. Yes it would be ‘undemocratic’ but should we sacrifice national interest on the altar of a vote from 10 years ago that everyone seems to regret?

We feel adrift during a scary time, and the US has all but ghosted us.

How the left love to shut down debate by saying you are stupid, racist, transphobic etc

Be careful about referendums..don't assume you know the answer..didn't they do that in 2016?

No thanks Europe is a complete mess right now. I'd want to see a drastic improvement before we rejoin.

Wasn't the thing the public voted on changed? If its what you're talking about. The public in Europe voted 'no' to something, the EU made some changes and presented it again and the public voted 'yes' to the changed version.
If I'm thinking of the same thing

I read that as the poster lives in the UK and her husband can no longer travel easily to the EU for work? If her country is 'racist or xenophobic' then that's exactly what we are as well.
I know someone with a set building company who does loads of work in Europe. He now only hires people with EU passports for ease of travel. It's us who put up these barriers.

They wouldn't have us anyway.

They wouldn't have us anyway.

Yes, there would be no point in having another referendum if the EU refused to have us back even if rejoin won.

This is all too emotional. The EU and the UK are not going to have a sudden kiss and make up. Any PM that did would be finishing their own career.

They are not even a good prospect economically for what the UK needs to prosper. Maybe we can negotiate some facilitation agreements to improve trade, but this emotional "Europe" is over.

No. There was a mixed response to the Constitution referenda in different European countries. The Constitution was passed despite arguments. It was subsequently amended in the Lisbon Treaty.

Specifically in the French referendum, to which I was referring, the 'No' vote was effectively over-ridden by Jacques Chirac following pressure from the EU. I clearly remember the EU saying in the French news at the time that France must vote again because they got it wrong.

This. Aside from being undemocratic it will mean a country adhesion process lasting years and requiring to be ratified by all EU member countries.

Everybody does not regret their Brexit vote OP. I don't regret voting. to leave one little bit neither do anyone I know who voted to leave either. The people who voted to stay want to believe everyone who had the audacity to disagree with them must regret their vote. It's so patronising.

Spot on.

We don’t live in a dictatorship (although it feels like it sometimes) This is what the people voted for and it would be awful if one person could just over turn it. Where would it stop?? Could he overturn the results of the next general election if it didn’t go his way? Could he decide unilaterally that the pension age rises to 85?? People need to have their say and you have to like it or lump it.

No, I don't wish that he would just unilaterally rejoin. But I do wish that he would make a very strong case for rejoining the EU and that he would initiate a proper national debate about whether Brexit should be reversed.

If you’re trying to say those 49% voted leave you would be wrong. It was 52%, which is why Brexit won. If 49% voted leave, we’d still be in the EU. Use your brain.

And no, rejoin wouldn’t win hands down. I can’t understand why anyone would want to be a part of the EU right now.

I really didn’t think there would be so many posters this passionate about Brexit! I can see I’ve lost the AIBU, although it looks like 3 or 4 in 10 agree with me so my opinion can’t be that ‘hare-brained’

I just feel like the last few weeks have been a hard lesson in who comes and goes as an ally

Erm, that's not what she's saying at all.

The bottom 49% of anything is below average.

Probably you should brush up on your maths, this is not correct, as an example:

The 50% percentile (median) for UK salaries is £29669. 50% earn more, 50% less. The average is £35404. 2023 figures.

As a spouse of a National, he should be able to work in the OP's home Country.
It is clearly apparent that the UK offers a far better standard of living or that is what they would be doing.

Depends which definition of "average" (which doesn't have one single meaning) you're using.

Anyway, we're splitting hairs. The point being made is that the more intelligent half of the electorate have above average intelligence and the less intelligent half have below average intelligence. If you don't understand this point then we can only speculate which half you are in.

No, as the spouse of an EU national he can accompany her when she is exercising her own right to free movement but he doesn't have any independent right to free movement of his own.

If they don't live in her country then he has no particular rights there over and above being a tourist.

Most EU countries have quite strict rules about, for example, who is allowed to work there and under what circumstances. But some of these rules can't be applied to EU nationals. So if, for example, a French woman and a British man who live in the UK decide to stay in France for an extended period during her maternity leave, he's breaking French law if he works from "home" there.

Besides, people have many different reasons for living and working in a different place other than simply where has the best standard of living. Otherwise, why are there so many British people living in France and so many French people living in the UK at the same time?

🤣🤣🤣

YABU, we are a democracy. It will push the haters even more firmly into Farage's arms.
I'd love to be in the EU again. It was idiocy to leave.

Trump has sided with tyranny. We have to view this US administration as hostile to our interests. We can’t trust them to keep their word or be party to any intelligence we are in possession of. And we need to get closer to our European neighbours, fellow liberal democracies - strength in numbers. PM can’t though simply rejoin the EU.

The EU has its own security problems. We shouldn't be in a hurry to reengage with them on the basis of Ukraine.

It's telling that Macron and Starmer's discussions do not include the majority of EU countries. There are good reasons for that, and Britain is wise not to jump straight back in.

That would be undemocratic, the country voted to leave and we have left. It would also be political suicide - his party, however pro-EU, would get shot of him as an electoral liability; we do not live in a tyrany and Prime Ministers do not have executive powers of decree. It might cause a constitutional crisis.
It would also be economic suicide as well as meaning we had to accept Shengen and the Euro - both of which would damage our economy. That wouldn't be the only price, either, since France in particular desires to punish the UK for daring to leave them holding half the subsidy basket for the poorer areas of the EU.