A modest proposal: If a majority of 51,89% for and 48,11% against was enough to push through with Brexit, maybe 55% vs. 30% should also be a clear votum to start talking about a new EU membership.
The problem isn’t just re-joining the eu. New contracts would be formed that would be far less advantageous for Britain than they previously had. Which would start this whole circus again :(
I honestly think that's very wrong and one of the last brexiteer arguments that still seems to be believed by reasonable people.
Under the old terms, the UK was one of the largest net contributors to the EU. And also one of the countries absorbing the most immigrants. In fact, the exemptions they got were all quite reasonable.
Without the exemptions, the UK would have been an even bigger net contributor and would have had even more immigrants.
Just from pure self-interest, the EU would be foolish to demand more than the old terms. In fact, with smart negotiating, I am sure the UK could get even more exemptions than they used to have.
And we, the EU, know this. The war in Ukraine is expensive af. The UK is already helping above and beyond what we could expect from them.
The EU economy isn't doing all too great either.
The mutual benefits of the UK rejoining will be billions if not trillions of extra economic output on both sides. It would be billions extra budget for the EU.
Why would we drive a hard bargain to squeeze out the Brits?
Friendly terms that make the British politicians look good and that make the UK public feel like winners and which provide direct short term economic benefits are the way to do it.
...maybe the EU citizens should be asked first IF they want the brits to come back in the first place?
and if they do - under what conditions. Don't forget the fact the Brits really have burned-down the bridges and threw every little bit of bullshit at the EU and several of the coutries, including their leaders. So - if they want to come back, they should think about a way to redeem themselves.
It's not about redemption or something like that. EU membership is a process and open to all european countries. If UK wants to join again, we don't need an apology from the population.
(and, by the way: 2016 was 9 years ago. With a life expectancy of 78 years and a voting age of 18 a bigger part of those who voted for Brexit have already died. No one under 27 was even able to vote. The migrant population also had no vote here)
We do, but we need to set an example. You can't have it look like some club you can just enter and exit just like that. You have got to discourage other countries from trying to leave.
Essentially the UK has to come crawling back on their knees and take a bad deal that gets better for them year after year or smth.
If they want to rejoin they should break up and let the individual countries become members. So if England wants to get out again it doesn’t drag Scotland and Northern Ireland with it against their will. Those two countries voted remain.
However in this case, it was furiously obvious that this was gonna happen even before the vote. All you needed was to inform yourself and think a little bit.
I keenly remember how one of the things the Leavers were pushing as a benefit of leaving the EU was to be able to get closer to the US. Oopsie...
Yet another in a long line of bollocks from the Brexiters, swallowed by a large percentage of the British Electorate (not just in the Referendum but even in Parliamentary Elections after it where they repeatedly voted the Leave leaders into Government).
Mind you, as somebody who left the country after that (I was an EU immigrant over there for more than a decade) I still look at Britain as guide for the rest of Europe, since they seem to have been 10 years ahead of most of Europe in their sliding towards Fascism (their version of it is led by millionaire/billionaire posh boys rather than nouveau riche construction magnates like in the US, but it's still the same kind of ideology)
It's a great deal. Go on the Euro, be a normal member and have the huge death dearth of benefits from the single market that the UK benefitted from for generations. It's a huge win for the UK if the EU would be that generous.
My conspiracy hat on, the only reason the right to leave was high was due to Russian interference. Now that their interests are focused elsewhere and they're being sanctioned to high shit what you're seeing now is the real results. Britain was never overwhelmingly for Brexit.
Eh. Just because Russia published and distributed books to its governmental members and most useful idiots explicitly calling for a propaganda campaign to decouple the UK from the EU doesn't mean the propaganda campaign didn't work.
Since when exatcly was that a secret? Im pretty sure Nigel Farage was bought by russians a long time ago. And im pretty sure he was one of the main reasons brexit happened.
Alghtough im not from uk so maybe there was someone more influential internaly in UK.
I love that sudden change in attitude the moment they actually leave. shows how once something actually happens, your instinct of denial kicks in, hoping you did the right thing even if you thought it was wrong before. didn't last long of course.