“Those voters do not want to have a conversation about Brexit,” said Joshua Simons, the director of Labour Together, a think-tank close to Labour leadership. How dare they prioritise one group of voters over all others?
Ellwood thinks that the election will bring release and hope: “I can see all parties embracing the idea of rejoining the single market… I put money on it that it happens in the next five years.” After so many years of Brexit thought compliance, will this country be in a fit state to take such big steps? I don’t think so.
There is a big, big difference between "noticing" and "admitting". E.g. there are a lot of older drivers. They usually noticed that they are no longer good for the road, but would they admit it and stop driving? Or look at this senile American Mitch McConnell - probably had a stroke in the middle of an interview, but would he admit that he is no longer fit for office?
I'd love for us to rejoin but realistically it's not going to happen for a long time. It took god knows how long for us to leave in the first place, going back (even if there was appetite for it) would take a long time. Particularly because of the damage it's caused us in terms of relationships with EU countries, can see some leaders making us wait even longer just because (which would be fair tbh). I think it will require a culture shift and we're not in the right place to do that at the moment.
Any conversations around rejoin are shot down as being treacherous to the UK. We don't have good media in the UK so there is no real conversation about matters that the Tories do not want to push.
I don't think many people will have the enthusiasm to go through a whole rejoin thing whether they were leave or remain that feels like ancient history now. Bring up Brexit now and most people roll their eyes, myself included
I imagine what will work is that the government starts to rebuild relationships with EU countries and make the best they can of a bad situation. It's obviously not worked but to save face there'll be a lot of unofficial understandings and deals.
I mean it's not that complicated, while people may recognise it was a mistake to vote to Leave there's no way in hell they'll ever admit publically it was a mistake and support the movement to rejoin the EU.
Maybe if the Tory party remains gutted as a non-threat for a couple of elections, we can test the waters with the idea. However, the moment any party even suggests it, the Tories will throw up a party of Brexit stuff and knock them out of any election.