3mo ago

The Guardian view on Britain and Europe: Labour must bring it on | Editorial

www.theguardian.com

This quote is a good summary of the article:

It is time to rebuild meaningful working and trading relations with Europe. This does not have to mean rejoining the EU. But it does mean recognising where our security and our prosperity both lie.

Thoughts?

14 comments

uk spending more money on defense is just grifting by contractors, uk is not assailable and surrounded by allies, but i'm sure more sas war criminals are always needed for guardian of israel to murder some people somewhere. Also money laundering gone to uae, so that seems meh for the financial services economy (10% of gdp, no?).
Aligning to eu makes sense in any case

In the other, the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, called for Britain to join the customs union by 2030 as part of a larger deal with Europe.
Would the EU actually accept us joining the EUCU without joining the EEA?
- Absolutely not. Most EU countries are still sour about the cherry picking Brits back in the day and the entire Brexit charade.
- Turkey is in the customs union without being in the EEA right?

I don't care about 'threats' from Russia or China, nothing more than new Red Scare propaganda. So, that point can be thrown in the ~~trash~~ rubbish bin.
Joining the customs union would boost trade by eliminating most taxes on imports and exports with EU member states. It would place Britain behind a European tariff wall with the rest of the world. It would help to align rules which, as Sir Ed pointed out, mean that a UK air cargo company currently has to service its planes in the US rather than in Europe. And it would reduce some of the red tape created by Britain’s own post-Brexit regulations.
What will EU even import from the UK? Does it even want British goods? Is there even enough demand backed by purchasing power in the EU countries given their own economic stagnation? Relying on exports as a source of demand is a terrible idea, especially when the Government isn't willing to step in if and when there are any shocks.
The economic reasons are more valid, I think more open trade between EU and UK would be good. But it's not going to fix U.K's problems in any way, that requires Government to do stuff and increase spending, which it isn't going to do.
- Yeah I guess the invasion of Ukraine didn't happen. It's just a "propaganda" myth isn't it.
  
  UK and Ukraine does sound the same, yeah.
- the continent cries out for bovril

Thoughts?
Labour isn't willing to lose 30-40% of it's voters. Cold hard truth. Thus they will never countenance rejoin on any level.
Closer "defence" arrangements is as far as they will go.
- You're probably right. Things like joining the customs union probably won't happen until at least the next government in 2029.
  
  Th best scenario as I see it is that the UK pays for membership to all the E* bodies that it would have had membership to when in the union. Stuff like the science projects or standards agencies and the like. Eventually someone might say, hang about why are we paying for all this when we could get this and more via some membership?
  But that's not going to one parliament away. The UK will be outside for at least 20 years. At least. Unless we stop voting Labour and Tory. But that isn't going to happen. 30 years.

14 comments