Rejoining the EU?

William Keegan who I like a lot, given he writes in the mode of a traditional (that is pre-third way) social democrat of a type familiar to me from a short membership of the British Labour Party, makes a point that is both sensible but absolutely politically impossible in an article. Before he gets to that he offers this:

Now, the majority of the rightwing Tories who inflicted Brexit upon us consider themselves Thatcherites. They know that Thatcher enjoyed the huge support of her chief press officer, Bernard Ingham. Well, I have news for them: my brother Victor and I had a most interesting lunch with Bernard shortly before he died recently, at the ripe old age of 90.

Ingham himself was an unashamed Brexiter. But he, who knew Thatcher’s views as well as anyone, told us in no uncertain terms that his boss would have undoubtedly voted to remain in the European Union. She fought her – and our – corner in many an EU dispute, but she knew where our economic interests lay; and, of course, she was godmother to the single market.

Well. Perhaps. I suspect though that she would more likely have gone with the times had she survived. That said she was indeed one of the prime movers of the single market – so perhaps her inclination would have been to leave the European Union and remain within the SM/CU? Who knows, who can tell? 

Anyhow Keegan argues:

Talking of which, I should like to reiterate my wonder at the fact that Rishi Sunak, when arguing the case for the Northern Ireland deal – in which he was supported by Keir Starmer – emphasised that Northern Ireland could continue to enjoy the benefits of being part of the UK and the single market.

If that’s good for Northern Ireland, Mr Sunak and Sir Keir, what about the rest of us, who, in addition to the economic consequences of Brexit, have lost our freedom of movement within the single market we helped to set up? It is surely time that Sunak, whose Brexit position has been shown to be flawed by his own comments, demonstrated his reputation for pragmatism by owning up to the catastrophe.

All true. All irrelevant. It doesn’t seem remotely likely that a British government will lead the UK back into the EU in the next decade and likely much longer, perhaps never. I could see the UK joining EFTA, or some approximation of same, but again not for a decade at least. And I think there’s good reasons for this. From the moment the referendum result was in it was clear that – like it or not, it had and retains a democratic mandate. One can complain that it was advisory, that those who sought Leave were (at best) economical with the truth, that some on the opposing side were underpowered, that the results was finely balanced and all those points are true. But all that aside everyone had a chance to make their case, if the worst argue theirs too passionately and the… well, best isn’t the term, less worse perhaps is more applicable, were not exactly filled with energy, so be it. Thirty years of British politics led towards a referendum. There was a result and that has to be acknowledged. 

One can argue more forcefully with the aftermath. The absurdity of a Remain cohort who refused to recognise that the world had, literally changed around them. The duplicity of a Leave cohort who saw the opportunity to push for the hardest form of Brexit possible, one that has led to years of chaos on this island. So for me it would be fair to say Brexit was a mistake, and one that unfortunately British working people will be living with for many years to come, but what followed compounded and exacerbated that mistake. And arguably led to an extension of the Tory moment that arrived in 2010 and remains to this day. 

So while my sympathies are with Keegan I don’t think it’s achievable and worse it may be diversionary. Better by far to lay the ground towards the ejection of the Tories and a better relations both with individual EU states and with the EU as a whole. 

And all this before we get to the significant problems that the way in which the EU is structured needs to be addressed. 

Good point here from him:

Meanwhile we all await the ineffable Jacob Rees-Mogg’s list of the “benefits of Brexit”. Given the recent banking emergencies in the US and Switzerland, I greatly look forward to Rees-Mogg’s views on the putative benefits of a restoration of the light-touch regulation that brought us the financial crisis of 2008.