THE BBC has been asked to explain why it has not reported on a large-scale anti-Brexit rally in the centre of London …

  • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Brexit has been an unmitigated disaster, but I feel like it’s time to rebrand the cause. The battle is over and the war is lost. There is no point to being anti-Brexit because the Brexit happened. You can’t stop it without a tardis (or a Delorean, for my fellow Americans). Rejoining the EU will require an entirely new set of applications and negotiations. Somebody should come up with a new brand and some catchy slogans. Brexit was a brilliant piece of marketing, for example.

    Like Breunion but better than that.

    • SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      As an EU citizen, I’m very conflicted about the UK just rejoining the European Union.

      Your administration made the weird decision to lean on a marginal difference on a referendum, and left with a whole lot of fuss and customised paperwork. Who’s to say you won’t do it again?

      While I do like a stronger Union, the UK will likely try to get back the position they had before (with all kinds of exceptions), but the only way the UK should be allowed to rejoin (in my opinion), should be with a full commitment, not just “we’re sort of joining but also not”.

      • Phanatik@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Didn’t the EU say that if we were to rejoin, the UK would have to adopt the Euro and all the other shit that the rest of the EU got when they joined. I don’t think we’re really in a position to dig our feet in and demand exceptions that we threw in the EU’s face when we left.

        • JoeCoT@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Right. If the UK tries to rejoin they’re going to get no favors from the rest of the EU, as an example to other member states that you can’t just play hokey pokey with a continental union. The UK will be miffed as a response. It’ll potentially take decades for a deal to work out for the UK to rejoin the EU, if that’s even its form at that point.

      • mindlessscrollingparrot@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        As a Brit, I fully support the idea that we should rejoin with full commitment. No way do I want a repeat performance where we can be taken out by a minority of gullible idiots.

      • r00ty@kbin.life
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        1 year ago

        When it was clear the referendum was going to be actioned, I never understood why the UK government didn’t just try to implement a move to the EEA or similar satellite level. It would satisfy the terms of the referendum entirely. The referendum was to leave the European union. The wording was very succinct.

        The UK probably would never have joined schengen (that’s really of hugest benefit to mainland Europe), we never took the European parliament seriously (you can argue that we should have, but we sent fucking Farage, so. No, we never took it seriously).

        But the common trading area and freedom of movement did benefit us (and the BS use of it to get votes from the right was filled with lies of course). Which (as I understand it) is the main features of being part of the EEA. It still of course means we’d need to adopt trade related laws of course (Oh my gaawwwd our sovereignty!!!). But we already were and it didn’t hurt us one bit!

        But no, it had to be full brexit or nothing (for some inexplicable reason).

        Yes, before people say anything. We’d need to be admitted into the EEA. I know that. But it wasn’t even tried! That’s the annoying thing. It was rejected straight off the bat.

        • SirQuackTheDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          but we sent fucking Farage

          Ha, that name only stuck around because of the BBC Radio 4 comedy podcast. Brexit caused a whole lot of ruckus, but the comedy shows were continuous gold.

        • bpm@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          That was the argument I heard a lot of from neolibs leading up to the referendum - “y’know, Norway and Switzerland aren’t in the EU and they’re doing fine”.

          I do wonder if Cameron had stuck it out if that’s what we would have aimed for, rather than leaving it up to the “Brexit means Brexit” crew.

      • eestileib@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        This is an entirely reasonable position. The (narrow) majority of the UK voting public has the relationship inverted; they think the EU needs them far more than they need the EU.

        There’s no way to come to a reasonable lasting outcome in negotiations.

        Much like it makes all the sense in the world for the rest of NATO not to trust the US any more.

    • r00ty@kbin.life
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      1 year ago

      I have a bit of a weird opinion on this. I was very anti brexit. I make multiple trips to Europe every year, probably 4-5 at least. I benefit nothing from leaving the union. My passport is filling with stamps at an alarming rate.

      But, to rejoin now after it is done. To rejoin with the basic requirements of a new state rejoining? I don’t think it’s as great an idea of remaining when we had the perks of an early joining larger state. Certainly you’ll find a lot more resistance to replacing the pound with the Euro (I actually could care less, but I’m in the minority here) than there was to leaving on the original terms.

      Also, I don’t think Europe should have to put up with us (as a whole, the country I mean) whiners. Our bed has been made by the stupidly defined referendum, and the subsequent disastrous implementation and now, we should just suck it up and lie in it.

      • madnificent@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The sentiment I hear around me is that you have been lied to.

        We have kept the lights on, like many of you asked, and we are looking forward to welcoming a new humorous generation.

        Sure, it is not going to be under the same conditions. Things have moved around when you left. Empty voids have been filled. Regardless, I’d love for us to see the propaganda of the time for what it was, propaganda and lies, and to bring the actors and platforms responsible for willingly spreading lies to their knees.

        Together we stand stronger in a strong Europe, and reuniting is a sign of Europe’s resilience to external influences.

        • r00ty@kbin.life
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          1 year ago

          I wasn’t lied to. Actually, the way this stuff was spread on social media was the whole cambridge analytica thing. I never saw ANY of the ads/sponsored posts etc. I was not the demographic, I guess. What I did see was weird opinions and people that never had a problem with the EU suddenly talking about sovereignty etc starting around a month before and getting much louder a week or so before. They targeted the advertising so tightly that those that weren’t close to the middle or on the side of leaving already never ever saw an advert/sponsored post or any other advertising. It was spookily well executed.

          I remember initially I was certain it would be a landslide remain. Around a week before I was very concerned it wouldn’t be any more, just based on the shift of public sentiment.

      • towerful@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Our laws are currently fairly inline with EU laws. It’s less work to fully align them now than in 10 years, when the Tories have fully dismantled workers/privacy/consumer/human rights.

        And I have no issue with the Euro. We still get to do our own artwork on the notes/coins.
        We clearly need immigration to cover the jobs people don’t want to do, despite the fact that the “they took our jobs” group would whine about work they personally don’t want to do being done by others.
        It would simplify and clear up our trade, just-in-time logistics for all manor of things, and likely put the UK in a better position as an “English speaking HQ of Europe” for companies.

        Ultimately tho, theres going to be a decade of shit to wade through before any potential benefits of Brexit actually come around.
        This was a huge talking point about Scottish Independence (“yeh, but you’d be fucked” “oh sure, but after 5-10 years we would be in a better position”). It’s fair to say the same applies to brexit (although the benefits of brexit are a lot less apparent to me)

        • r00ty@kbin.life
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          1 year ago

          All of the benefits (so far as I can tell) were always theoretical. We can make our own trade deals. Except, previously trade deals were made on our behalf as part of a trading bloc that included us, Germany, France, Italy, The nordics (mostly via the EEA) and the rest of Europe. How was there ever a serious expectation we’d get a better deal as a fraction of that bargaining power? So, a theoretical benefit that’s extremely unlikely to pan out to our advantage.

          Taking control of our borders? How has that worked out for us? Not too well so far it seems.

          Yeah, it’s crap. But I feel like some more of those brexit supporting business owners need to eat some more humble pie before we ever try to go back.

          • towerful@programming.dev
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            1 year ago

            I don’t buy tunnocks, dyson, or go to a weatherspoon.
            No doubt there are other companies I don’t realise were pro-brexit.

            I know the whole “ooh look at you and your personal boycott changing the world” bullshit. Fuck it, I’m still doing it. This is my hill of beans to die on.
            It’s like recycling, reducing consumption etc. Yeh, big companies are contributing more to climate change and they really are the ones that need to change. But I can’t hate on them if I’m not trying to help the situation.

      • bpm@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think the point I realised how out of step I am with most brexiters was when someone argued with me that now we’re out of the EU “they can take all their bloody decimalised currency with them!”

        I was completely flabbergasted that someone would still be mad about an objectively better system that’s been the norm for over 50 years at this point.

    • li10@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      You’re right, but needing a catchy slogan and a bit of anger to get us to do something with massive consequences is a stark reminder that at the end of the day we’re just dumb apes.