[spireitematt]

Hypothetical question. Let's say that Britain never joined the EEC back in 1973 and we had a referendum to join the EU would you join?

[bluepooch]

Back then there were only 9 countries and It would have looked a much more attractive proposition, but the idea has been ruined by the addition of about 20 much poorer countries who could not possibly have made the EU stronger and would have only been able to sponge off the entity which diluted the whole thing and made it weaker as an economic being.

[Devongone]

Join now? A club it takes you years to leave, where you get a vote but the real decisions are made by unelected bureaucrats, by an organisation that pointlessly runs two enormously expensive homes that its members fork out for, in which France and Germany have ruled the roost for years and manipulated the rules to suit themselves ........... and which admits nations so impoverished that the greatest hope of their people is to emigrate to a richer member? For those and a million more reasons you'd have to be mental. Apparently Scotland is, but Turkeys and Christmas spring to my mind.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Best I just leave you to it.
Problem is we never took it seriously, you've got to be in it to change it. We're all European like it or not. Maybe it has gone a bit wrong but going it alone is going to be even worse.

[bluepooch]

To be honest i don't care if we take short term economic pain for long term gain ,I didn't vote to leave because of any economic implications I voted to save my country from the tide of change which is ruining it and take back control of our own borders and laws.
The fact that the government are making a balls up of it just makes the situation worse.
I like being European I just dont like this idea of it becoming a United States of Europe where all the countries merge into one big state and lose their individual identity which is what will happen if its allowed to continue

[Devongone]

Basically the UK is organised and run in a way with which I fundamentally disagree and within which it is extraordinarily difficult to effect any kind of lasting change.

The EU is even bigger, more bureaucratic and inscrutable and there is at least as much I disagree with. Its structures are such that effecting change is absolutely impossible and it is determined to head down a road of ever greater control rather than less.

For me the EU is simply a prison which houses 28 other prisons. Without it there's only be one wall to demolish.

Under different circumstances I'd support much closer links with our neighbours and friends. If we were free now, joining this club would be an act of madness IMO. On the other hand I think our actually leaving the EU now is only slightly more likely than Chesterfield avoiding relegation.

[spireitematt]

Dancing you may like this new political party which has been set up.

https://renewbritain.org/

[Dancingwilldoit]

Problem is Matt we have turned down a road that has no U turn signs everywhere. If we change our minds now we will be not only the laughing stock of Europe but the rest of the world as well. Whatever will be will be.

[St Charles Owl]

Problem is Matt we have turned down a road that has no U turn signs everywhere. If we change our minds now we will be not only the laughing stock of Europe but the rest of the world as well. Whatever will be will be.

Maybe we can take down the U-turn signs so that at least it becomes an option somewhere down the road. Wouldn't you rather be a laughing stock for making a humbling u-turn than a laughing stock for making a terrible decision?? Depending on your point of view of course.

[Dancingwilldoit]

Problem is Matt we have turned down a road that has no U turn signs everywhere. If we change our minds now we will be not only the laughing stock of Europe but the rest of the world as well. Whatever will be will be.

Maybe we can take down the U-turn signs so that at least it becomes an option somewhere down the road.  Wouldn't you rather be a laughing stock for making a humbling u-turn than a laughing stock for making a terrible decision??  Depending on your point of view of course.

It all depends what you see as a terrible decision. IMO our vote to leave was that point as IMO the vote to make Trump president was a terrible decision and made America the laughing stock of the rest of the world. At the end of the day it all boils down to opinions but once you embark down a road you have to make the best of it rather than spend a fortune trying to change direction. If we decided to do a U turn can't you just imagine the rest of Europe rubbing its hands in glee at the prospect of little Britain upping its contributions by 100% to re join?