Showing posts with label rejoining the EU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rejoining the EU. Show all posts

Friday, January 05, 2024

Liz Webster: Decisive New YouGov Brexit Poll: Why Britain Is On the Way Back Home

Jan 5, 2024 | Four years after Brexit, what future forms of relationship with the EU would Britons support? Rejoining the EU is the most popular option

Sunday, December 03, 2023

No 10 Daren’t Admit It, but Ursula von der Leyen Is Right: We’ll Be Going Back on Brexit

THE OBSERVER: The case for rejoining the single market and the customs union grows stronger by the day. A future Labour government can’t ignore it

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, says the direction of travel is clear: Britain will one day rejoin the EU. Photograph: Jean-François Badias/AP

There was little doubt who came ahead in the spat between Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Rishi Sunak last week over Britain rejoining the EU. She began her salvo acknowledging that the EU had “goofed up” in losing Britain, but that it would fall to her children’s generation “to fix it”. The “direction of travel was clear”. Britain one day would rejoin.

The substance behind No 10’s inevitable refutation was so threadbare that it bordered on the comic. But then there is no better defence to hand. The prime minister, intoned his spokesman, did not think Brexit was in danger, trying to reinforce the point by declaring: “It’s through our Brexit freedoms that we are, right now, considering how to further strengthen our migration system. It is through our Brexit freedoms we are ensuring patients in the UK can get access to medicines faster, that there is improved animal welfare. That is very much what we are focused on.”

Is that it? Apart from the fact the claims are at best half-truths, at worst palpable falsehoods, as a muster of Brexit “freedoms” they fall devastatingly short of the promises made during the referendum campaign. Recall the economic and trade boom, a reinvigorated NHS, cheap food, controlled immigration and a reborn “global” Britain strutting the world. It’s all ashes – and had today’s realities been known in 2016, we would still be EU members. » | Will Hutton | Sunday, December 3, 2023

The UK will have to re-join the EU at some point. It is inevitable. It is not a question of if, but of when. The UK will not thrive outside of the EU. The UK and the EU need each other: the relationship is symbiotic. The sooner we return to the fold, the better it will be for both parties. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, December 02, 2023

Michael Lambert: UK Has No Future Outside the EU

Dec 2, 2023 | The UK economy is in a very bad state. Cost of living crisis, high taxes, NHS and other public services in crisis, businesses collapsing and councils going bankrupt.

Rishi Sunak caused a diplomatic incident this week by refusing to meet the Greek Prime Minister after he had responded to a question from Laura Kuenssberg about the Elgin Marbles.

Sunak, King Charles and David Cameron each flew to the Cop28 in the UAE in separate planes where Sunak would be the Prime Minister who had rolled back on EVA's and was presiding over the opening of a new coal mine and giving hundreds of new licences for oil exploration in the North Sea.

Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England said Britain's growth outlook was the worst he had ever seen and that there would be little or no growth for the next two years.

The EU has done a better trade deal with New Zealand than the one negotiated with the UK. Eurozone inflation at 2.4% is half that of the UK.

Sunak for the Conservative Party and Starmer for Labour both say they will resolve the UK's problems with economic growth. But where will this growth come from? The UK is struggling noticeably and, at the same time China is rapidly becoming the world champion of green technology and the U.S. is investing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Alone, outside of the EU, the UK has no future and more and more people are coming to understand this. 92% of young people and over 60% of the population believe that we would be better off inside the EU. Ursula von der Leyen has said that the UK is on a clear direction of travel toward rejoining the EU. Michel Barnier has said repeatedly that the door is always open for the UK to return. It is likely that the UK will begin negotiations towards rejoining the EU sooner rather than later



Michael, this is a superb analysis of the dire situation this country finds itself in. I agree with your conclusion that we will re-join the EU sooner rather than later. If we don't, this country is going to be in deep, deep trouble.

Rishi Sunak, as you rightly say, is pathetic; further, his snubbing of the Greek prime minister was, quite frankly, rude in the extreme. The man has shown a total lack of savoir-vivre. In good, plain English, the man showed his ignorance!

We are living through very depressing times indeed. Our politicians aren't making our lives any easier, either. Never mind! Onwards and upwards! We'll arrive home in the EU sooner than we might think. The hill is steep, so the climb is going to be tough, but it can be climbed. To borrow from the motto of my old grammar school, I will say: We ought. We will. We must. – © Mark Alexander

Thursday, September 07, 2023

The Federal Trust: Join the Euro, Rejoin the EU

Sep 7, 2023 | In this new video, Brendan Donnelly and John Stevens argue that membership of the euro will be necessary to sustain the UK’s re-entry into the European Union after Brexit. They recognise that political leadership will be necessary for such a radical step to come about. But they also argue that British public opinion would be more receptive to leadership on the issue of the single currency than is often assumed.

SPEAKERS

Brendan Donnelly is the Director of the Federal Trust and a former Conservative MEP.
John Stevens is the Chairman of the Federal Trust and a former Conservative MEP.

ABOUT THE FEDERAL TRUST

The Federal Trust is a research institute studying regional, national, European and global levels of government. It has always had a particular interest in the European Union and Britain’s place in it. The Federal Trust has no allegiance to any political party. It is registered as a charity for the purposes of education and research.