To think it’s clear as day now that Brexit was a massive mistake and we need to rejoin the EU asap

[G3ran1um]

How can anybody still argue than it was a good idea?

I think it's more likely the EU will implode, or at least massively reform, than the UK rejoins.

Eurosceptic parties are the ones leading the polls in France, Germany and Italy now. Voters are fed up with the regulations, the high taxes, the number of bureaucrats and politicians on high salaries, all achieving very little.

I'd happily rejoin a bloc of free trade - but you'd need to get rid of all the MEPs, the Council of Europe, the parliaments and the regulations first.

No you weren’t. What you did was choose to fall for the Leave campaign marketing. It was so clearly a load of nonsense, promising things that were never going to happen but unfortunately was effective swaying the small percentage of ‘undecideds’ to vote Leave.

The reason for rejoining is that it is the worlds largest trading block, and we had a privileged gateway to it because global trade is in English. It contains the majority of our trading partners so putting up barriers and costs is madness and to trade in those countries we have to follow EU standards and regulations we just no longer have any influence on them and have to take them wholesale or not trade.

However I agree that to get back in will be difficult they will want to humiliate us. It may be what is happening which is to recreate bits of it - student visas; scientific cooperation; intel agreements is the most useful thing to do.

EU did have overreach and they are terribly bureaucratic and hard to deal with. My job used to involve it.

Thing is for all her faults, and there were many, Thatcher negotiated the best deal of all the EU countries for the UK, keeping sterling for one.

We were fools to let this all go.

Rejoining would mean taking on the Euro, which would increase the likelihood of the main European stock exchange being in Frankfurt.

If the UK loses the stock exchange financially we would be fucked for eternity.

So whilst we voted Remain I am not sure Return would be the best idea. Return as we were for sure, but that will never ever happen.

It’s depressing how idiotic as a country we were to throw away our EU deal. But it’s done now.

According to AI: 'The EU's average annual real GDP growth (total, not per capita) was about 1.3% from 2005–2024, with per capita even lower ... in total from 5 to 12% whereas in the US it has been more than 20%'

No sympathy.
The truth was easily available.

First of all, we are already very very dependent on the US in a way that is not great for our sovereignty. Second, becoming the 51st state in the age of Trump is not a wish I share.

At least admit you made a mistake instead of bleating about being lied to. We all were. You didn't have to believe it.

@mrbluebirdonmyshoulder "I agree - and I voted to leave.We were lied to."

To be fair, the lies were pretty obvious. And they were pretty obviously being peddled by known liars.

I voted to remain. I would not vote to rejoin.

As others have said, we’d likely have hugely unfavourable terms compared to our previous EU membership. We would not be going back to what being in the EU meant prior to Brexit.

I also think the EU imposes significant regulatory burdens on businesses, at a time when the UK economy is struggling to get out of a long-term slump (yes I appreciate that slump will have been contributed to by Brexit). CSRD, CSDDD, the Forced Labour Directive all impose reporting and due diligence obligations on large businesses and their supply chains, with powers to seize goods or block them from sale, which makes them less competitive than businesses not subject to those regulations. Whilst those regulations can apply to UK businesses if they meet the relevant thresholds and conduct business in the EU, there are plenty of businesses not caught as a result of not doing business in the EU, and the UK not being a member.

Since Brexit, the EU has expanded further with its aims of effectively operating as “one state”, which is not something I want to be a part of.

Yes and fucked ourselves right over because if we join back now (which I believe we should) we lose the veto and will have to join the euro, which I was never keen on as I dont believe that number of countries should share one interest rate, but so be it. Joining would give us benefits which would outweigh that disadvantage.

An easy rule of thumb is this:
If you don't know what to think about something, find out what Anne Widdicombe thinks and think the opposite. Also works for Farage Garage and all Reform members.

Also, the title in the OP is incorrect.
To think it’s clear as day now that Brexit was a massive mistake...
It always was as clear as day.

Brexit was idiotic and the decision should never have been left to the public. Let's be honest, most people voting leave did so because they wanted an end to freedom of movement. People did not understand the economic consequences.

Nigel Farage is one that springs to mind.

I don't think you were, unless you just swallowed everything Johnson, Farage, et al peddled. As an adult of voting age you have to do your own research and employ some critical thinking. The issue was that the remain contingent thought it was unthinkable the referendum would result in a leave vote so they didn't do or say very much about the benefits of remaining in the EU. I thought the leave campaign was utter bollocks and voted to remain. I would still have voted remain whatever they had said. Freedom of movement is such a fundamental underpin which, unfortunately, a lot of people still don't understand.

I voted remain , went on all the matches too.

Right now I am not sure about rejoining., mainly due to the recent vote the EU parliament had to agree that men can be women ……

Absolutely. Massive act of self harm by the UK.

Oh, that well known authority AI!

This morning doing the newspaper crossword we asked Dr Google for ‘types of tea ending in the letter D’ and AI spit back Darjeeling. Then, restricted to four letters, something called ‘dust tea’ (which turns out to be a thing). (The answer was ‘iced’)

To the point:

These numbers are not consistent with your earlier post that I first quoted. If the EU economy grew on average around 1% per annum for 15 years, the overall growth is indeed around 13.5% as government and NGO sources claim.

A total growth of 20% over that time, which you now quote, works out to an average annual growth rate of just under 1.23%. HTH.

So EU’s average annual growth rate, including poor countries: a bit over 1%

America’s average annual growth rate: 1.23%

Comparing apples to apples makes all the difference

I voted remain. I thought Brexit would be damaging but to be honest it has been far worse than I had imagined.

I wouldn't base a decision on rejoining on this single issue. You have to be a participant in order to influence from within. Unfortunately, for most of its membership the UK behaved as though it had to keep the rest of EU in check. We're now a lot further away from WW2 than we were in 1973 and the political landscape is very different. If we rejoined we wouldn't have some of the vetoes we used to have.

I hope we can rejoin somehow. I hate how hard it is to move around now. And I'm so annoyed about what's happening to businesses in Northern Ireland.

I don't personally find economic growth a strong argument. Look at how individuals in the usa are getting on. 60% of them aren't able to afford comfortable lives. Whereas the average person in e.g. Finland might find it harder to find a job but whether they're in or out of work they can access food, housing and healthcare.

Well Johnson and co had those buses that implied that the NHS would get an extra £350million a week as a result of Brexit. Was that not them lying? Or was it the voters’ fault for believing them? (remain voter and still very angry about leaving - I can’t think of many other examples of when we have so clearly shot ourselves in the foot, except for perhaps water privatisation).

Is there any good reason the other member states would let the UK join the EU if it applied for membership now? And how long would it take to make it an acceptable member of the Eurozone (because there will be no opt-outs next time round).

I clicked yabu purely because UK cannot simply just rejoin

To be honest I'd have voted for hard remain and that's what we'd need to accept to rejoin. Common market, Shengen, single currency, km instead of miles etc etc. I'd still vote for it but I doubt the politicians would.