Reminds me of one of the wittiest comments I ever heard on television - in an item on school mottoes on Have I Got news For You, the Chair turned to one of the teams and asked ‘Do you remember your school motto?’ Unsure which of them he was asking, one team member replied ‘Who are you looking at?’ - to which quick as a flash Paul Merton interjected ‘Blimey, that must have been a tough school!’
The big problem with Breturn is - would the EU want us back?
We’ve negotiated in bad faith, attempted to go back on agreements - indeed claimed agreements are not binding the morning after they were signed and are set to blame the EU if Brexit does not turn out to be the most successful political project of all time.
If I were the EU I’d tell us to piss off (probably best I’m not involved in the negotiations ).
Nobody ever mentions how much time and effort the EU is having to put into this. High level politicians and civil servants (unelected bureaucrats) are having to waste their time on Brexit instead of concentrating their efforts on the needs of remaining members.
"Sorry, we changed our minds!"isn’t going to go down too well. Maybe a future government with serious credentials and a reputation for integrity could ask nicely, certainly not this lot.
If they had us back I suspect that you are right - which is, of course, why “Return” is so much harder to sell domestically than “Remain”.
But you get the sense that they - Barnier especially - are losing patience with us; I think it might actually be difficult to get comprehensive support for a UK return to membership.
According to his website Tim had a 20 year career in management in the construction industry prior to moving to France in 2005 - so, let’s guess he’s in his late 50’s or early 60’s and given the marvels of modern medicine should be good for another 25-35 years. About the same as me, barring mishaps.
In that time-frame I think re-accession to the Union is a possibility but I’m not holding my breath!
The ERG didn’t exist but don’t forget John Major’s ‘Bastards’, the fore-runners of the ERG. The Torys have always has an anti-europe wing, and influential, at that.
Another thing to recall is that it used to be Labour Party policy, as in the manifesto back in Michael Foot’s time, I think, to oppose UK membership of the then C.U./E.E.C.
Tony Benn was a famous Europhobe, but he also once said that nuclear energy would be too cheap to meter, so even the wisest men can be wrong.
I don’t think Corbin ever shared his opinion.
The former, and would happily accept the upper end of your ‘years left’ prediction. I just can’t see either of the major parties having the balls to push for re-entry any time soon, the other unknown bit is how the EU gets on without the UK, if it doesn’t fall apart where is the incentive to allow it back in?
And if it does fall apart there won’t be anything to re-join.
It’s not just the parties - I can’t see a move to re-join being valid without a further referendum and in the present climate I can’t see the public loving the EU enough to accept the Euro and disappearance of Sterling.
It depends, though, on how much change we actually see next year and how much the public associate it with Brexit - when the government will be spinning heavily that it is almost anything but (and certainly not their fault.
The bigger worry is how much damage Cummings will get away with before he is ousted.
).