We asked four of our contributors, part of the team that have produced this ‘Our Place in Europe‘ series over the past 10 months. What are their views for a future re-join? For all Labour’s terror of mentioning the word Brexit, might a change of government be a cause for optimism?
Jenny Rhodes
The Brexit vote was eight painful years ago. Now politicians barely mention it, knowing they’re on weak ground championing it. Brexiter dreams have not been realised. We could really benefit from a closer EU relationship, perhaps membership, or another alignment model not yet envisaged.
Will we join the EU? is the second question. The first is: we what kind of country do we want to be?
The EU has its faults, but its values include equality, human rights, and promoting citizens’ wellbeing. A groundswell is now building for a UK government like this. We can now see what life is like when government doesn’t protect people, or ‘level up’ those in need. When ‘bonfire of regulations’ means sewage in rivers, lower quality, costlier food and weaker workers’ rights.
Yet if Labour wins the election, and Starmer keeps his word, we won’t join the EU: the wound is too raw to be re-salted. But five years on from the General Election, broken Britain might hopefully be a more caring, cared-for place. More aligned with European values and with something to offer?
For future global issues – AI, security, refugees and the climate emergency, there will be benefits from being within an alliance. By the end of this decade, the clamour to be in the European bloc will be undeniable; the main debate will be how? I believe an answer will be found before the 2029 election.
Peter Thurlow
Joining the EU again would ideally require a fundamental change in British attitudes. Can we make it happen? Well, it’s happening already. The mean spirit which drove Brexit belongs to a group of an age and attitude which are both fading away. Nobody champions Brexit anymore. Public opinion is firmly of the view that Brexit was a horrible mistake. Now all we need is for our political class to have the courage of our convictions.
With the passing of the present government, the last vestiges of Brexit influence will pass away. The challenge passes to Keir Starmer. Making statements to assuage opinion and win an election is one thing, it’s another to get the country on its feet when the economic disaster of Brexit can be so easily put right. With such huge problems to solve, with no money, and with a restive public haranguing him to rejoin, what is he to do?
It’s inconceivable that Labour will finish its first term still holding to its present position on the EU. From here, it can still look bleak. But in two or three years’ time, expect major changes; not yet EU membership, though that will certainly happen again.
Kate Moore
During my lifetime my family has absorbed French, German, Spanish and Turkish blood. Unsurprising then, that I feel European. Travelling there regularly, the differences between the UK and EU countries – what we do well and what we have lost – are visible.
Each day we see or hear of the consequences of Brexit. The supermarkets with “temporarily unavailable” stickers. Shelves either empty or packed with the same product, disguising the fact that the past choice is no more. The pharmacist unable to dispense complete prescriptions. Hospitality crying out for staff. The rising cost of food. The ‘Not for Sale in EU’ stickers. The deliberate trashing of regulations protecting food and water standards, the environment and animal welfare. All in the name of “taking back control”.
Britons often pride themselves on their ‘blitz spirit’ – overcoming adversity and soldiering on. But in the same way as foodbanks appear to have become ‘normalised’, as time passes will our young people, and even those with longer memories, begin to normalise this current dysfunctional state? With misinformation and disinformation on the rise, especially about the EU, and preposterous claims about the UK’s greatness, as evidenced by the Tories’ recent “Britain is the second most powerful country” poster, will people believe their current plight is the norm for a modern European country?
Until politicians are prepared to call out the UK’s troubles and their causes honestly. Until they acknowledge that Brexit was a huge act of self-harm, exacerbated by years of austerity, de-industrialisation and infrastructure underinvestment. Until democratic reform advances consensus politics which our first past the post electoral process denies. Then it could well be a generation before the clamour for a ‘new approach’ echoes in the chambers of Westminster – and once again we realise our future prosperity lies with ‘joining’ the economic and political bloc just 21 miles away.
Anna Damski
I know we will return to the EU. I know this because of ‘gravity’, a model trade experts use to explain how countries trade far more with their neighbours than those a long way away. All the other reasons flow from there.
As someone who’s half Polish I’ve always felt ‘European’. I can still remember the excitement of seeing the Iron Curtain – that I’d crossed many times on holidays to visit family – come crashing down. The subsequent accession of eastern European countries into the EU. Hearing Polish and other European voices all around me in my native London. So the referendum result hit me like a hammer blow. I felt like a part of me had been wrenched away. It wasn’t about losing my citizenship and all the things that go with it, as I can apply for a Polish passport if I want. What hit me hardest was the sheer destructive nature of it, my empathy for the mixed citizen families torn apart, the uncertain future for all those who’d made the UK their home, and the glee of Leave voters at their vandalising of the UK.
It was, as it turned out, a pyrrhic victory.
We’ve seen a huge contraction of goods trade. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the need for security and cooperation that goes beyond NATO. We have re-joined the Horizon science and innovation programme because we need to work together to tackle global challenges. In short, our future prosperity lies in being at the heart of Europe again.
As Chair of Suffolk for Europe I, and our committee, and over a hundred other groups around the country, keep the dream alive for our pro-EU members. We have built a wonderful community who meet and discuss EU news and hold street stalls in local towns to remind people how destructive – and expensive – Brexit is. We’re helping change minds.
A new Labour government will try to ignore Brexit, but gravity is a far stronger force. Inevitably, it will pull us back to the EU where we belong.
