If you think leaving the EU was a bad idea, what are you doing about it?

[Woj]

Change doesn't just happen, it's made...

You've made a great diagram. What else do you think could/should be made?

I’m a Remainer, Stay Out.

Leaving the EU was a mistake, mainly becuase economics, but the political and campaigning effort required to rejoin would be far, far better spent driving for more important pro-growth measures like nuclear energy, planning and infrastructure reform, and navigating AI.

If we rejoin we must adopt the Euro and Schengen, and we significantly constrain our freedom to run industrial policy.

Leaving the EU distracted the political machine for a decade.

AI is the biggest economic challenge and opportunity now, and the last thing we need is a decade refighting old battles, distracting ourselves from that.

Also a Remainer, also Stay Out.

I’m surprised at the graph/numbers, because I just cannot see a compelling case for rejoining. As far as I can tell, despite the grousing leaving hasn’t actually made much difference to anything in this country, and I see nothing about the EU as an organisation which makes it the right horse to back politically. The referendum vote was a surprise but the outcome was clear enough.

A quarter of Leave voters changing their minds seems completely fanciful to me, because whatever you might think of them they do represent a long and important strain of British history. Ultimately, being semi-detached from continental Europe has and always will be part of our national character and interests. We have the luxury of being able to do so, and we should make the best of that. We do our own thing here and we always will. Sometimes that will involve being close and sometimes it won’t, and sometimes it will be some of both. It certainly isn’t worth having another fight to try to formalise things so that we be semi-detached from inside the EU rather than outside it.

As the graphic shows, if you voted Remain in 2016 but now say stay out, you are in a rather small minority.

The EU isn't perfect, but it's unlikely to vanish any time soon, during which time the UK will not have it any easier for not being a part of it, imho.

True, but there is a difference between “would you vote to have a Ferrari?” and “if you had that money would you spend it on a Ferrari?”.

The latter is the more relevant question in my view. Becuase rejoining is not cost and effort free and prioritising rejoining means deprioritising other issues.

Around the referendum our EU membership was near the top of people’s priority issues. It hasn’t been in the top ten for ages now.

https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/concern-about-defence-doubles-become-big-issue-britain-nhs-and-inflation

You of course can argue that it should be up there, but you can’t argue there’s currently a big public desire to rejoin.

Nothing. I'm another who thinks that the significant efforts needed to rejoin would be far better spent elsewhere at this time.

I also think that the Remain campaign failed and until those involved fully recognise why they failed and take proper responsibility for it, they are in no position to be taking on the massive task that is starting the process to rejoin.

I'm a non-EU migrant who didn't have the vote back when the referendum happened, I've just been watching it unfold while being dragged along. The Remain campaign was weak, it did not rise to the challenge of addressing the decline and issues people were experiencing that led to the calls for a referendum in the first place, they failed to see that years of politicians blaming issues on the EU - including many who would then campaign for Remain - wasn't going to be erased with some numbers on funding or discussing thing like Erasmus that most have no connection with. They had the resources to put on a proper campaign, they could have connected with people on the issues and put forward a plan of action of how to make things better while being in the EU, they could have taken responsibility for blaming things on the EU that had actually been in UK control and chose not to do so. They banked on the status quo being enough when clearly if that had been enough, promising to have the referendum wouldn't have been a vote winner in the first place.

IMO, while Brexit was a bad idea, blaming everything on Brexit is little better than blaming everything on the EU that we had for so long - it's just the latest way politicians are distracting and misdirecting rather than accepting our current reality and working on how to improve things from where we are, not some hypothetical imaginary idea of how we'd be if we returned.

I would argue that ahead of the EU referendum it was claimed that by leaving the EU we would "take back control" of our borders back and thus reduce immigration.
The statistics show that immigration has gone up since then.
Therefore I would argue that if immigration is what concerns people most, then our leaving the EU must also be a part of that conversation.
Polling for the Gorton and Denton By-Election show that, despite the effects of tactical voting, The Rejoin EU Party are on par with the LibDems and the Conservatives.
And if Andy Burnham was allowed to stand for election, Labour would most likely win, and he's pro-Rejoin.

Argument is an intellectual process... 😄

I’m not doing anything. We had such an amazing deal in the EU, and we’ll never be offered that again. We really messed up. As another poster pointed out, we’d have to accept the Euro and Schengen.

Back in, asap. It's insanity being out, especially given the threat from Russia and the US. Yes we would lose the excellent deal we had, but people shouldn't have been so stupid.

It has affected the economy hugely, it's just that Covid and Ukraine happened at the same time and it feels like it's all part of the same thing.

The EU was never a big issue for most people until the right wing media started fanning the flames and writing silly stories about bananas. We need to go back in - the most sensible option given our proximity - and get on with things, without the beaurocracy of Brexit.

Would we?

Re-joining isn't the only option is it? Could we re-join the European Economic Area?

Personally, I find that money is money is money...

It's what you can buy with you bank balance that's important, not what it's called!

And I don't find the idea of Schengen such a controversial topic either, but that's just my opinion.

If we don’t rejoin soon I think things are going to look extremely bad for this country in the coming years. We don’t have any money. We need to trade with our nearest and biggest trading bloc

Avoiding Reform and laughing at them along with the rest of the sane population

I waved goodbye and moved to an EU country.

I’m getting my DeLorean out of the garage.

Do you mean EFTA? I don't think there are any EEC members that aren't in EFTA, and I believe the Norwegians don't want us in EFTA.

I voted remain but I can't say that Brexit hasn't been good for us. My self employed DH has earnt a lot more money now freedom of movement has ended. He can now charge a fair price instead of being undercut all of the time. I would now vote to stay out.

I agree with @sakura06. We will never, ever get back in on the hugely favourable terms we had before. It was the best deal any EU country had, and we threw it away. So for a generation at least, we've made our bed and must lie in it. It's embarrassing. For myself, if there are opportunities (like a strong pro-EU movement) in the future, yes I'd join it.

We got EU passports so we can F off if/when necessary

The problem you have is that rejoining is really really not as simple as people think. I don't think there will ever be rejoining.
Can't just go "soooo. We would like back pls"

Therefore I would argue that if immigration is what concerns people most, then our leaving the EU must also be a part of that conversation

In which case, how are you going to deal with the very real prospect of Ukraine and Albania joining the EU? Ukraine's population is more than Poland and Romania combined. Freedom of movement with Ukraine and Albania (or Serbia) might be a hard sell and which rejoin politician is going to say they will veto Ukraine joining the EU?

What is the issue with FoM with Albania and/or Ukraine?

Ukraine's population is more than Poland and Romania combined

Correction - Ukraine's usual population larger than Poland.

Both poor countries, likely at least one million Ukrainians/Albanians moving to the UK. I was replying to the op's point that immigration had to be part of the debate.

Freedom of Movement is far more of a flowing system than immigration from non EU countries.

Where do you get the at least one million will be moving to the UK from?