Burnham edges Labour closer to rejoining EU

What!? Where the hell is my chlorinated chicken with salmonella lettuce Andy?

Edging is the right term for what labour have been doing

It would be another referendum surely?,

I cant even imagine what the BREXIT crowd would say now, especially given its far easier to remove those entering via boats when in the EU

Nationalising Avanti and rejoining the EU all within 24 hours?

I might be able to swallow a dogturd of a budget if he continues like this.

Can anyone explain to me why re-joining the EU on lesser or worse terms than we originally had, is a good idea for the UK? I do think there’s this delusion that re-joining the EU is the magic wand to solve all of our problems, when it quite clearly Isn’t.

Rejoin the EU, throw Farage in jail. Not much to ask really is it?

the lunatics that set the country back 10 years will not be happy about this

but meta probably told them to vote for it anyway

sort the rot first

I genuinely have no idea what would be better.
Has anyone seen the video of Andrew Neil talking to the Lib Dem MP about how bad it would be rejoining.
My question is, is what he says true? Because why would we want to rejoin if it is.

Impressive.

Get rid of the online safety act and social media ban.

I would genuinely vote for Labour for a very long time after the fact if they pull this off.

I keep seeing people talking about rejoining the EU as though Britain was doing brilliantly before 2016, we inexplicably voted to leave, and getting back in would suddenly solve the country’s problems.
Whatever you think about Brexit now, surely that’s rewriting history.

17.4 million people didn’t all wake up one morning and randomly decide they hated Europe. Leave won 52 48 because there were genuine concerns about the UK’s relationship with the EU.
And contrary to what is sometimes claimed, the biggest reason Leave voters gave wasn’t even “Brexit will make us richer”.

Polling immediately after the referendum found:
• 49% said their main reason was that decisions about the UK should be taken in the UK.
• 33% said it was the best opportunity to regain control over immigration and Britain’s borders.
• 13% were concerned about further expansion of EU membership or EU powers.
• Only 6% primarily chose Leave because they thought Britain would economically benefit outside the EU.

So the vote was largely about sovereignty, democratic control, immigration and the direction the EU was heading, rather than everyone believing Brexit would instantly make them wealthier.

That doesn’t mean Brexit has been an economic success. There are perfectly legitimate arguments for much closer EU relations, and people who favour rejoining can point to reduced trade barriers, easier movement between Britain and Europe, potentially greater investment and fewer complications for businesses trading with our biggest neighbouring market.

But there’s another question that seems to get ignored:

What about the reasons Britain voted Leave in the first place?

If we rejoined, what would the terms actually be?

Would we regain the unusually favourable arrangements Britain previously had?

What happens to freedom of movement?

How much control would return to EU institutions?

Would Britain retain its existing opt outs?

What would our financial contribution be?

Would we eventually be expected to participate in further European integration?

Those aren’t anti-European questions. They’re questions that should be answered before asking the country to reverse one of the biggest democratic decisions in modern British history.

And Britain had serious domestic problems before Brexit.

Housing shortages existed before 2016.
The NHS was under pressure before 2016.
Wage stagnation existed before 2016.
Regional inequality existed before 2016.
Governments struggled with immigration targets before 2016.
Low productivity and underinvestment weren’t invented by Brexit.

Brexit can have made some of those problems harder without being the original cause of all of them.

That’s the part of the current debate I find strange. We’ve gone from one oversimplification “leaving the EU will fix everything” to almost the opposite one:
“Rejoining the EU will fix everything.”

Maybe Britain’s eventual conclusion will be that EU membership is worth the compromises. Maybe it’ll decide that closer cooperation without membership is preferable. Maybe it’ll remain outside.

But if we’re ever going to seriously discuss rejoining, I’d rather see an honest debate that acknowledges both the costs of Brexit AND the genuine reasons millions of people wanted to leave, rather than pretending Britain before 2016 was some problem free country that we simply need to return to.

Otherwise we haven’t actually learned anything from the referendum.

I think adopting the Euro would be requirement of rejoining..