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...

The Americans are doing a good job of pushing us back to EU, only now we don't have any say in the rules they set at all. Finally most of the general public have recognised the EU is more reliable than US and any country further afield that the US might not like at any given time for any minor reason and start wars with. The EU are relatively stable and varied with regulations that protect our health. They also all seem to be on the same page wrt the mad man in White House. UK can't do much other than realign our trade as we can't make US get rid of the ridiculous mango and we can't afford to officially rejoin EU.

Yes a tiny minority. Seems like far more on mumsnet as people don't always want to admit they voted Leave and got us into this mess.

I was a remainer ( personally think some people are now afraid to declare they were leave voters so are saying they voted remain when they didn’t).

We should rejoin as it was ludicrous and it’s left us vulnerable.

I would very much question the assumption that the EU is “unlikely to vanish any time soon”. It’s a very loose organisation compared to any developed western state, and it’s never been stress-tested in the way it’s likely to be over the next decade or two.

It’s not at all difficult to imagine circumstances where e.g. Germany decides it’s not in its interests to subordinate itself to the EU anymore, and then that would be that.

What am I doing? Not voting Reform for a kick off .

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.

This is a really interesting perspective that has made me stop and think about it in a new way.

Just one observation: Isn't it maybe relevant that this "semi-detached" national character developed firstly when Britain had an empire, and was then sustained by our "special relationship" with a relatively sane, liberal, and unquestionably world-hegemonic USA? So how wise is it to retain our attachment to that self image as we navigate a multi-polar future with an ascendent China; Russia nipping at Europe's eastern heels; and an American president talking about leaving NATO while seemingly doing everything he can to lower his country's standing in the world and turn it into a fascist basket case?

It doesn't seem like a good place for a small, isolated, import-dependent island to me. Which is basically what we are outside of the EU, delusions of post-imperial grandness notwithstanding.

I’d disagree with that starting-point. It was probably always there, simply because we are an island, but it’s definitely there in Henry VIII breaking from the Catholic Church.

As I said, I was a remainer and I basically agree with you on what would be the optimum position for us to be in. But also sometimes it is better for us to be independent and nimble, and while we’re hardly making a good fist of that right now, I’ve made my peace with Brexit.

"Nimble" was what the Brexiteers were all saying before the referendum. It was a lie then, and it's still a lie. Compare our deal with Australia with the one the EU got...

Trouble is we aren't 'nimble' we are struggling to put in trade regulations and having to tackle imports with suspicious loads frequently, which costs a lot. Dodgy meat on the market is a particularly concerning development that we keep having to address and goodness knows what diseases that can cause. The cost of another CJD/Foot and Mouth would be the death knoll to farmers.

@MaybeNotBob

Compare our deal with Australia with the one the EU got..

Is answered by:

Compare the deal the UK got with the US, whose economy is 15 times larger than that of Australia, to the one the EU got.

US tariffs applied to UK = 10%

US tariffs applied to EU = 15%

@MaybeNotBob

The cost of rejoining will be covered in the first year by the economic boost.

If that’s correct, why has the government not triggered Article 49?

If you have evidence that proves that statement is correct, why have you not presented it to Parliament?