Comment by throw0101d
13 days ago
> Brexit needs to be reversed already.
Support for reversing Brexit / rejoining the EU is a bit mixed:
> While 55% of Britons say they support the UK rejoining the EU, this falls to just 35% if the UK had to rejoin without its prior opt-outs, with 43% opposed
* https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/54925-what-do-britons-thin...
The UK had a pretty unique setup previously, and I'm not sure if the EU would really go along with it again.
The Economist wrote a few articles on the topic, e.g. https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/12/30/britain-and-the...
Which is... quite weird, really, because the former opt-outs were mostly fairly minor. I assume they'd be allowed stay out of Schengen in practice; Ireland's not in it and they have an essentially un-closeable border with Ireland (this is, incidentally, the main reason Ireland's not in Schengen in the first place). And realistically the EU has shown no appetite for dragging countries who don't want it into the eurozone; see Poland.
> Which is... quite weird, really, because the former opt-outs were mostly fairly minor.
Schengen and the Euro were hardly minor:
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_opt-outs_from_E...
There were only four (now three) countries in the EU that got any opt-outs at all, and the UK the most opted-out items (4):
* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opt-outs_in_the_European_Union
What I'm getting at is that _in practice_ they would not be subject to Schengen or the euro anyway. For Schengen, see the Northern Ireland situation post-Brexit; exactly the same problem would emerge. For the Euro, see Poland.
While I voted remain I'm not sure about rejoining fully now. A lot of the problems were with the upheaval, like food companies selling to the EU often couldn't do it economically without the single market and went out of business. Rejoining won't suddenly unbankrupt them.
> I'm not sure if the EU would really go along with it again.
Sounds like Project Fear to me! The EU needs Britain more than Britain needs them! The German car/French wine/etc. industry will beg the European Commission to give Britain all their opt-outs back to secure a rejoin!
> 58% of French people and 63% of Germans support the UK rejoining the EU
> However, 58-61% think the UK should have to participate in all major EU policies if it rejoined, like Schengen and the Euro
> If it were only willing to rejoin with its old opt-outs, support for the UK rejoining falls to 36% in France and 39% in Germany
* https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/55023-ten-years-after-the-...