Will (or indeed should) the UK ever rejoin the EU?

ancapailldorcha · 18-10-2021 6:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118038139#Comment_118038139

Would they? A slew of firms have been moving jobs out of the UK since the vote (Source). The UK's just missed a once in a lifetime opportunity to be the new global hub for the manufacture of superconductors. That was a golden opportunity given the Taiwan situation and is a heck of a price to pay for misunderstood notions of what sovereignty is.

To get back on topic, the UK should absolutely rejoin but it won't happen while this nationalist, authoritarian government is in power.

18-10-2021 6:31pm

It’s only a good move if the jobs created are sticky. In that those jobs and the knowledge they create, can not be easily shipped out to a lower cost country at the whim of a board of directors in the US.

i agree on the environmental impact. Seeing all those container ships lined up at various ports around the world does make you think about the impact international trade has.

An Oligarchs mega yacht can burn €5000 of file per day. Think how much a monster container ship gets through.

Joe_ Public · 18-10-2021 6:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118036325#Comment_118036325

Not sure what figures you're using there. China is responsible for about half of the vaccines that have been administered globally, Pfizer would be next in line, then AZ.

ujjjjjjjjj · 18-10-2021 6:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118038139#Comment_118038139

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118037820#Comment_118037820

There is plenty of world class manufacturing in the UK - Rolls Royce, BAE, Bentley, Lotus, Aston Martin, Mini, Jaguar Land Rover and a whole slew of smaller niche companies who are experts in their field be it Barbour Jackets or Triumph motorcycles etc etc, one could go on and on. Like so much manufacturing the lure of the Far East in recent decades has stripped manufacturing from so many areas in the UK and Europe.

Europe (and yes the UK) across the board needs to pull more manufacturing back from China etc.

techman1 · 18-10-2021 10:20pm

The problem for Europe though is how does it bring back those manufacturing jobs and still reduce its carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. Building new factories and starting producing things again is incompatible with such drastic carbon reductions. Part of the reason why European carbon emissions slowed down was due to outsourcing dirty energy intensive production to China.

Something is going to have to give somewhere and I think it will result in a very angry Greta Thurnberg

Larbre34 · 18-10-2021 10:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118038213#Comment_118038213

The vast majority of those firms you name are no longer British owned and, you would imagine, as soon it no longer suits their purpose, they will stop manufacturing in GB. Whether that goes to China or Europe or anywhere else is essentially a moot point from a British perspective, but the most recent big investment I'm aware of by any of them was a new R&D centre for Jaguar-Land Rover. Where? In Shannon, Co. Clare.

Would that have been outside Britain if they remained in the EU? Unlikely.

ujjjjjjjjj · 18-10-2021 11:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039603#Comment_118039603

Not sure what point you are making, all I was pointing out was that there was plenty of world class manufacturing taking place in the UK. Yes many of the companies I list are not British owned but if I wanted I could spend an age and send you a list of 100% British owned companies who still make stuff in the UK. Volkswagen a German company own Seat who have several large car factories in Spain but it still means there is a sizeable car manufacturing industry in Spain. In Ireland we have dozens of foreign owned multinationals who employ people but that doesn't detract from the fact that they are in Ireland employing Irish people or should we consider them as not really counting as pharma plants or data centres as they ain't Irish owned ? Ireland's new non existent pharma industry......Just like German owned Bentley employ a load of Brits manufacturing cars....in the UK but that doesn't count as they are German owned ?

As for Indian owned JLR but predominantly British based manufacturing wise, the software investment in Shannon is very welcome but I or you have no idea whether it had anything to do with Brexit and in the scheme of things is a rather tiny part of JLR. From a quick Google looks like a separate company down there which JLR is a lead partner in. But it also involves other companies so who knows and the Shannon site seems ideal for what they want !! It is very easy to try and make out that Brexit was the reason this ended up in Shannon but was that the case or does it just suit the simple narrative of Brexit caused this.....I genuinely don't know.

19-10-2021 12:59am

Re the thread topic, no it won't. It should require both political parties to switch to pro-EU membership for the EU to even consider it.

The UK is big enough that in a few years, whatever its economy is doing will be the new normal. Comparisons like the current HGV or fuel crisis will lose relevance the longer the UK and GB are economically apart.

ancapailldorcha · 19-10-2021 9:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039862#Comment_118039862

I think the only way that this happens is for the Labour to pull another Blair and conclusively win at least two consecutive elections. I can't see it in their current form given all the internecine bickering endemic in the party but were that to happen, we'd get a completely different Tory party as has happened many times before.

Ironically, if this were to happen, it'd be a portion of Labour taking the UK back in with Tory support not unlike 1975.

However, this is at least decade off. We need to fully acclimatise to life post-EU membership before even discussing rejoining.

Sam Russell · 19-10-2021 9:39am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118039822#Comment_118039822

JLR are of course building a lot of their current product in Britain because that is easier. However, the new Defender, replacement for the original Land Rover (from 1948) will be built in Slovakia. So loyalty to the UK might be short lived.

That might be the story with a lot of these large foreign owned companies. 'Hey, HMG, we find this Brexit stuff a bit too difficult to manage with all this extra costs because of Brexit and all the red tape so we are moving to Slovakia or Poland unless you give us a bit of financial subsidy - say a billion or two - how about it? Of course, it will be a great deal for Global Britain to retain such a world wide product as ours.'

tanko · 19-10-2021 10:12am

The minute the UK voted to leave the UK the only workable solution to the disaster on the way was some sort of BRINO and it still is the only solution today. That solution will last for about thirty years and then they’ll rejoin the EU when most of the people who voted for Brexit are dead.

PommieBast · 19-10-2021 10:27am

Customs union maybe but EU itself is well off the agenda. Bigger question is whether both the UK and EU will still be around long enough..

19-10-2021 1:03pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040687#Comment_118040687

car manufacturers have been having that conversation with governments long before Brexit.

Sam Russell · 19-10-2021 2:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118042059#Comment_118042059

Maybe, but they have a better argument now.

Snickers Man · 19-10-2021 3:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118032946#Comment_118032946

Why should we agree to a border in Ireland? We didn't want it, weren't asked about it and make clear we are not going to accept it. Brexit was Britain's decision. It necessitates a hard trade border. That means that one of the parties to the conflict that the Good Friday Agreement attempted to solve, and largely did so, HAS TO LOSE!!

Border in the Irish Sea: Unionists not happy.

Border along Derry, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and Down county lines: nationalists have to lose out.

I don't know how old you are but I, as a mature Irish citizen in the late 1990s got my vote on whether to accept the GFA. Our part of the deal was a referendum amending Articles 2 and 3 of our Constitution to "soften" the claim on Northern Irish territory. I voted for it willingly because of the spirit of the times, the desire for peace, the give and take and the principle that "Nothing was agreed until everything was agreed." With the British promise that a border referendum would be accepted if a majority ever wanted it, and the internal Northern commitment to power sharing, I was all in favour of compromising. And I suspected that with Ireland and Britain both in the EU there would never be a need for a border poll anyway because it was so "Soft" in the wake of the post 1992 single market anyway.

Now what has happened is that the British are saying "Hah! Fooled you! We've changed our mind and you're just going to have to suck it up! The border is going back because it has to go somewhere. And we're not dividing our precious realm just because a generation of politicians of good will in the UK (Major and Blair) and in Ireland north and south (Hume, Trimble, Ahern, Bruton, Spring) sweated blood to get a compromise agreement. Tough ****, Paddy!!"

Of course this is exactly the reason why the numbskulls of the DUP were so in favour of Brexit and why a majority of Ordinary Decent People in Northern Ireland were so opposed to it. They KNEW and KNOW that somebody is going to have to suck up a loss. This is really lost on plummy English Brexiteers who never gave it a moment's thought. To see them preen now that "Northern Ireland is as much a part of our country as is Somerset" like that Lord Snooty lookalike Rees Mogg does is truly nauseating.

I really despise them!!

You're right of course that Brexit is Britain's decision and they should be allowed sail off into their new independent status without us carping and sneering about the terrible mess it has caused in logistics, food harvesting and medical provision. We should avert our eyes from petrol and lorry driver shortages. They will sort that out eventually. All it takes is more cash for drivers and a few cleaners working a few extra shifts in motorway service station toilets.

But the Northern Ireland bit and the location and function of the border ARE our business and we have an absolute right to fight our corner.

If only for practicality's sake, a border in the Irish Sea for animal and food products makes the most practical and logistical sense. If Britain goes for GMO food and angel-dust fed beef from the other side of the world, how do we safeguard our agriculture sector with a border as porous as exists on our island?

Sure, it's a fudge but the trade border on the Irish Sea is the only practical alternative to our leaving the EU or Britain rejoining it. And neither of those are going to happen.

ujjjjjjjjj · 19-10-2021 6:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040687#Comment_118040687

May be the way it plays out for sure and no doubt any company with half a brain cell will look for government support if they think they can get away with it. But without EU competition regulations on state aid that an also be played positively by the UK too.

By the way JLR in 2015 (prior to Brexit) made intentions clear about building a new factory in Eastern Europe, no doubt diversification and cost based. They have temporarily been getting some of their electric models built in Austria did to capacity issues in the UK (this was pre Brexit) and pending new Eastern European factory opening. Point is the decision by JLR to diversify some manufacturing elsewhere was made before Brexit and very much in line with the strategy of many global manufacturers in the car industry.

To keep vaguely on thread about whether the UK will ever rejoin, a large part of this will be economic progress or lack of in the UK in the next 15 years or so. If it does go pear shaped then yes you would expect pressure to build, if if goes fair to middling or heaven forbid the UK prospers then I can't see anyway they are likely to rejoin in the mid term. Long term who knows....

ujjjjjjjjj · 19-10-2021 7:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118043005#Comment_118043005

Entirely agree with you re not wanting a border on the border.......and also I 100% agree that it ain't going to happen as politically it ain't possible in Ireland.

But it is still is a fudge and a fudge which is going to keep causing problems because it exists. I ain't a fan of the DUP etc but do respect their right to exist within the UK and clearly aware of the dangers of giving them a stick to beat on and on about. Whether we like it not sticking a border in the Irish Sea is an emotive issue for them. Yes in reverse a border on the border would have been an emotive issue for nationalists.....the gift of the North just keeps on giving !!

Not having a border between North and South is totally illogical in every practical sense as you have two countries with potentially differing standards and tariffs etc etc but I understand it is politically required and the NI protocol is the fudge to fix this.

Suppose I fall into the camp of at all costs maintain peace in the North and if a border had appeared I wouldn't have considered it a huge problem if peace was maintained and certainly not one worth one episode of unrest for in my book. I suspect others may disagree. Let me be clear I don't want a border on the border but I want lots of things I can't have !! Blame Brexit for this mess yes, but it was a side effect of Brexit not an intention of it.

I too voted for the GFA BTW and I really believe its fundamental strength was giving the North control over their own destiny, that for me is it's most important point as it gives both communities some sense of control and balance. It was a landmark agreement but I suppose no one foresaw Brexit !!

Delighted you agree that the time for carping and sneering at the UK is past, we have had our fun, time to move on. Whether you or I or anyone like it the two countries are extremely closely linked and have much to gain from keeping these links close. Sometimes being the 'bigger' person in a spat makes most sense.

Strazdas · 20-10-2021 12:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118040972#Comment_118040972

Talk that the EU might collapse soon seem fanciful (and usually made by people with a pathological hatred of the union i.e. people with an agenda). Many pundits have suggested there is no reason it won't celebrate its 100th birthday in 2058. It is nothing like the Soviet Union for example : an authoritarian and genocidal dictatorship which is estimated to have murdered 20 million of its own citizens.

Peregrinus · 20-10-2021 4:06am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118044675#Comment_118044675

I wish to God I could part-quote these things.

Two things you say I want to pick up on:

"Blame Brexit for this mess yes, but it was a side effect of Brexit not an intention of it."

And:

"Delighted you agree that the time for carping and sneering at the UK is past, we have had our fun, time to move on."

Whether damage to the peace settlement in Ireland was the intended outcome of the way Brexit has been implemented or was simply a side-effect is irrelevant. It's enough that was the outcome of the way Brexit has been implemented. (Indeed, it was the foreseeable outcome of the way Brexit was implemented.) Therefore, those who implemented Brexit are responsible for the damage. It doesn't matter that they didn't intend to inflict this damage; that it was just a by-product of the actions they took to achieve some other end. We are responsible for the consequences of our actions, even if we didn't intend them or they are not what motivated us to acct. We expect our children to grasp this somewhere between the ages of about 4 and 7 years old.

If the way Brexit was implemented requires some fudge in NI and if, as you say, all fudges are necessarily unstable, then the UK is squarely to blame for the instability they have imposed on NI; the UK made, and maintains, the choices which required the fudge. Is it unreasonable, or at any rate unrealistic, to ask people to stop "carping and sneering" at the UK when the UK has yet to accept any responsibility for what it has done - indeed, for what it is still doing?

And the other part of the injunction is to "move on". But how, exactly, do we "move on"? If the problem is that Northern Ireland has been destabilised by the way Brexit has been implemented, then "moving on" surely requires addressing that instability and working to resolve it. And that means changing the way Brexit is being implemented. And that, of course, requires a shift on the part of the UK government. They need to stop making decisions which exacerbate the instability in NI, and to start reversing some of the decisions they have already made.

It may be that "carping and sneering" at the UK is unlikely to get them to to change their course, but shutting up, meekly accepting it and lying down like good croppies is even more unlikely to get them to change. Those who want the carping and sneering to stop need to be bringing forward positive proposals for advancing the kind of changes that are needed.

fly_agaric · 20-10-2021 1:26pm

Blame Brexit for this mess yes, but it was a side effect of Brexit not an intention of it.

Originally, but since Boris took over and then was made secure by his huge majority, the UK govt. is deploying NI and Ireland's ties to it to damage the EU. Kind of (re)doing things the way they believe they should have been handled way back when Theresa May was PM. They "project" on this matter of course and say the EU used/uses NI against them and against "Brexit".

All possible outcomes of pushing this NI based strategy to the end are I believe seen as very positive by the UK government. The only fly in the ointment (IMO) is the damage a strong EU response to it (trade sanctions of some type) could inflict on the UK economy and fear of this is why they take it very slowly.

The displeasure of the US is likely already "priced in" (no chance in hell of a US trade agreement until Biden is gone + maybe they don't think US will do anything else concrete, and they don't care about criticism [they are well used to that]).

I think I put it to you earlier this year (unless was someone else, can't check...??) that this was the developing UK strategy (put the gun to a few heads on the "open" NI border vs integrity of single market and see if something breaks somewhere in the EU/Ireland). You said no, there's nothing at all malevolent (towards Ireland) about what is happening...they are just somewhat poorly organised & struggling to get the NI protocol implemented but it will be worked out (eventually). I think the events since then make it clear enough what is going on.

partyguinness · 24-11-2021 9:24am

Rejoin?

No chance. The Brits are stubborn and awkward just for the sake of it and have no problem going against their own interests so as to save face in front of untrustworthy Johnny Foreigner

partyguinness · 24-11-2021 9:27am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118031763#Comment_118031763

Yes we would all love dearly to Brexit fail and sit around laughing our asses off.

But the UK will be just fine. Not because of Brexit but in spite of it.

Seth Brundle · 24-11-2021 9:31am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118214567#Comment_118214567

So when will it start being fine? As it stands, they are on a gradual downhill slope in so many areas with no sign of things going to change given everything the Tories are doing. When will the UK become attractive to foreign investment as it had in the past? When will they start attracting talent from overseas like thy did in the past?

Or are you just hoping that it will be fine?

20silkcut · 24-11-2021 10:12am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118214567#Comment_118214567

The U.K. was just fine in the 1960’s too I mean relatively speaking the swinging sixties were in full swing. They won the World Cup. Irish people were going there by the boat load.

It was just fine .

partyguinness · 24-11-2021 10:21am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118214781#Comment_118214781

The 60s coincided with the baby boom and building era after WII.

It was not so fine in the 1970s- it was essentaiily bailed out in the mid 70s and ECC membership was critical.

Generally it not helpful to compare the position 50-60 years ago.

partyguinness · 24-11-2021 10:23am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118214584#Comment_118214584

I don't care when it will be fine or on what timescale.

My point is that countries, economies and people evolve and adapt. The UK will be just fine.

ancapailldorcha · 24-11-2021 11:14am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118214848#Comment_118214848

This is a comment with no real meaning. The UK isn't going to turn into a developing country. What's more likely is a reduced rate of growth and probably a recession.

I don't think the UK should rejoin before 2030 if indeed it ever does. The British need to reform their country and rejoining would just distract from this and allow the tabloids to resume their practice for making the EU out to be the worst thing in the world.

Sam Russell · 24-11-2021 12:28pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118214848#Comment_118214848

Well, it depends on what 'The UK will be just fine' actually means.

In 1959, Harold Macmillan won an election on the slogan - 'You have never had it so good!'. But it hid the problems coming down the track, but essentially, following the boom after WW II, he was correct. Everything was fine.

When Harold Wilson took over, the economy was in the toilet, with balance of payments issues dominating a flaky economy. What followed was a decade of devaluation, miner strikes, three day weeks, high inflation, and high unemployment, etc. So that was fine.

Then Thatcher got elected in 1979, and introduced another round of miner strikes, cavalry charges by mounted police against miners protesting. The mines closed within a decade or so, so that was fine.

She nationalised British Leyland, the car company, which cost the tax payer billions, and was sold to British Aerospace for a tenner, but eventually it disappeared into nothing.

She introduced the Poll Tax as a way of supressing the Labour vote and had riots in the streets. So that was fine.

She sold off all the social housing and it was never rebuilt - causing an unrelenting rise in house prices, and rents. Now the young and poor can neither buy nor rent a home at anything like affordable rates. So that is fine.

She introduced 'light touch' regulation of the financial markets in the CoL, and that resulted in the financial crash of 2008. So that was fine.

Roll on to the current state of affairs, where blatant corruption from Gov ministers, their friends and donors pocketing billions from the public purse with not a murmur from any right wing tabloid or broadsheet. So that is fine.

I see what you mean. It will be fine.

partyguinness · 24-11-2021 12:34pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118215111#Comment_118215111

That is a comment with no real meaning and based on speculation and generalities.

Why do you not think they should rejoin before 2030? So can we infer that you have a more specific timescale in mind? Please do elaborate. While of course anything is possible but the notion that the UK will rejoin is laughable and for the fairies.

What is more likley to happen over the next few years is that the constant tit for tat with the EU will continue to the extent that the differences vis a vis Protocols etc will be negligible. As I said, the UK will evolve and adapt- it has no choice.

ancapailldorcha · 24-11-2021 12:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118215529#Comment_118215529

Why don't your elaborate on your initial point first? How will the UK evolve and adapt in your opinion?

Larbre34 · 24-11-2021 12:48pm

Its worth remembering, we haven't seen the worst of Brexit yet. Most of the trade restrictions are in abeyance as we're still in the transition period for some elements.

Between that and Covid, we are in something of a limbo. When it all comes fully into effect, I think its going to have a devastating effect on Britain.

A perfect storm of scarcity and inflation, vacancies by the millions in menial jobs but millions of higher value jobs under threat. All coupled with a precipitous drop in GDP. It could get very, very ugly.

crossman47 · 24-11-2021 1:36pm

I can't see the UK (if it still exists) being accepted back by the other countries. There will be too many memories of their constant looking for special deals, opt outs, etc. and then blaming the EU for their problems. Brexit then put the tin hat on it. We might want them back to make life easier for us but I can't see others wanting it.

techman1 · 24-11-2021 1:57pm

No because all the problems facing Europe now are independent of EU membership, the energy crisis, oil prices, inflation, covid, irregular migration, terrorism etc. Rejoining the EU is not going to make any difference to these problems, when the migration crisis hit Europe in 2015 and then covid in 2020, it was every country for themselves.

Sure we were the biggest "little irelanders" during covid wanting to shut ourselves completely from Europe and not let anyone in. Indeed we had to have an acceptable reason to leave the island or the guards would turn us back

Peregrinus · 25-11-2021 6:06am

Ask yourself why the UK joined the EU in the first place. The answer is that in the late 1950s/early 1960s they could see they had a long-term economic problem. They "would be just fine" in partyguiness's terms, but they were consistently underperforming comparable European countries, were falling behind them and would continue to fall further and further behind them. And, in the 1960s, the UK had a political leadership that didn't regard that as "just fine".

Brexit - at least, as implemented - essentially recreates these circumstances. The British government's own modelling is that Brexit will create systemic underperformance by the UK, relative to what they would achieve as EU members, and over time this will led to them falling further and further behind comparable EU economies, with a growing gap in economic performance, real wages, living standards, ability to finance government services, etc. Brexiter dreams that this will be offset by wonderful new trade deals with countries yet to be discovered under the sea are wholly unrealistic; there is at present no realistic strategy for avoiding the economic effects of Brexit.

So, essentially Brexit has recreated the economic conditions that led the UK to aspire to EU membership in the first place.

But this is a slow-burning thing; these conditions have to persist for a long time in order for a big gap to open up. And the present generation of political leaders (on both sides of UK politics) either have nailed their colours to the Brexit mast, or at least have positioned themselves as accepting Brexit and trying to make it work, which makes it difficult to pivot and point out that it can't work. So the easiest course for them is to let the problem drift for quite a while.

Ambitious, up-and-coming politicians who hope to be among the next generation of political leaders - at least, those of them with two brain cells to rub together - can spot the problem. If and when they do find themselves in the hot seat, the economic stresses resulting from Brexit will be starting to become pressing. There won't necessarily be a mass Rejoin movement in full swing, but there will be business, trade, etc leaders pressing for economically less ruinous government positions, and there'll be a popular awareness that the UK is a tatty, dull, lethargic place compared to neighbouring countries; a distinctly second-rate country. Those boardies who are old enough to remember what Ireland felt like for much of the 1980s — the vibe will be something like that. And there'll be an expectation that something will be done to make the UK a bit brighter and more promising, and huge political advantage accruing to whoever can successfully do that something.

My guess is that the something done will not be rejoining, but it will be a significant incremental realignment towards the EU. It will be the kind of policies that, in recent years, would have been dismissed as "Brexit in name only". But in the late 2020s and beyond, say, which is when we are talking about, that criticism will have little traction; the public will have no patience with or interest in anyone who, at that time, is still trying to fight the Brexit wars of the late 2010s.

Sam Russell · 26-11-2021 9:56am

Remember - Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, were all communist countries and opposed to EU membership until the fall of the USSR. They changed their view overnight and are (mostly) happy members of the EU.

It just will take a watershed change in British politics - probably with the Scottish vote to leave the UK and become an independent state.

Peregrinus · 26-11-2021 10:19am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118225305#Comment_118225305

Bear in mind that the topic of this thread is "will or should the UK ever rejoin the EU?". Unless you were simply venting at random, your post presumably meant that you felt the UK's trade union problems in the 1970s were in some way pertinent to the question of EU membership. My point is that it was in fact mainly the Tories who presided over the development of the conditions that led the UK to seek EU membership, and it is now the Tories who are working hard to recreate those conditions. Random rants about trade unions are either wholly irrelevant to this, or an active attempt to distract from it.

ancapailldorcha · 26-11-2021 11:09am

Mod: Can we get back on topic please.

ancapailldorcha · 26-11-2021 12:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118225598#Comment_118225598

Several posts have been removed. Please stay on topic. The state of the UK in the 1970's and 80's is not the topic of the thread.

Mayfielder · 26-11-2021 2:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118225215#Comment_118225215

It's a fine theory that at the moment doesn't stand up to much scrutiny. The campaign for Scottish independence is going nowhere but backwards and this, after Brexit, when it should be flying if the experts are to be believed. The latest polling from Survation out this week shows more weakening of support - Remain: 59% (+2) Leave: 41% (-2).

And Northern Ireland ? For as long as I can remember the view has been yes a united Ireland might be agreeable but not just yet if you don't mind come back to me at some time in the much distant future thanks very much.

I just don't see anyone of any note in UK politics seriously contemplating a return to the EU.

McGiver · 27-11-2021 6:09pm

So "just fine" is the Great British Standard now? 😎

Right, I guess the English (not British) will be "just fine" when the Czech Republic, a 3rd league "Eastern" country in British standards, converges the UK GPD per capita PPP, which if everything continues going so well with Brexit will take a few years max.

IT - $41840
CZ - $42049
UK - $44916

Czechia has already overtaken Portugal, Greece and Italy much older EU members...Slovenia is close to Italy too and will catch up stagnating UK as well in my opinion.

Also, notice how Germany continues to diverge from the UK. I am sure it must be a coincidence or the bloody German carmakers or something. Perhaps Germany didn't have something called Brexit?😀

Will (or indeed should) the UK ever rejoin the EU?

Comments