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To be honest, young people, and even old people within the EU face the exact same problems? Will re-joining help the housing market? I honestly don't know, as I think that is still mostly a thing nations need to sort out themselves. And fail at doing.

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Ask Google? It's not as if it's news that Greek students need a visa to study in the UK?

Why does @yougov.co.uk never include the most important question when they publish these? "Would you want to re-join on the current EU terms?"

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Actually a very interesting point from an historic perspective. Where I live, we laid the foundations of the union, and nobody at this time would even have considered a referendum on it. Very different times. "Let's just bond over steel and coal" 😆

Of course. And now the UK will have to figure out on which terms they could return. It's not actually news that the EU has always left the door open. It's the UK kept it slammed shut for years. We can be stronger together, but this time on equal terms?

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But isn't that what any kind of union on this planet is supposed to do? Protecting the own market actually seems like a kind of socialist idea...

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Sorry, but I don't recognise this 'war of civilisations', and I live here. I'm genuinely interested what you mean by this.

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Isn't the "whatever terms can be negotiated" part of the problem? Whose terms?

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So, 27 leaders of member states, while being backed by their electorates, having to agree unanimously on major issues is 'undemocratic'. And one far-right lunatic playing the media tricking the country into a Brexit is 'democratic'?

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There is a recent migration pact, energy has always been a local thing, and the 'One Europe, One Market Roadmap' will go into effect in 2027. Anything else?

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It is EXACTLY about this. Sorry for screaming it out loud, but this is still the biggest elephant in the room in the re-join national debate. Will the UK ever accept joining on the same terms as countries like Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden, Bulgaria, or Belgium or The Netherlands?

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I do love watching your channels. So I'll forgive the obvious PhotoShop mistakes. Oh well, at least it's not AI ;)

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And how exactly. Up until now the UK has been the only country that actually went this way. I'm not denying there is a problem with populists, but once in power and confronted with actual laws, they can't really do that much? Or try, and fail?

I don't think people in the UK are more stupid than in any other European nation. However, the Brexit thing was the most stupid thing any EU nation has ever done. That kind of thing somehow leaves a mark in the perception?

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Even then, I don't think a #Frexit will ever be a thing.

Still, would they have done better if the UK was still part of the EU? And how exactly? Besides the money, the EU is also a union of values. Never easy, always slow, but it's not as if the union is in any form of decline at the moment.

Hello from one of your neighbouring countries. We're doing fine, thank you. And oh yes, even doing great while the net contribution per tax payer is the highest in the EU. Open your eyes, and look at the real figures.

What would interest me most is what kind of EU do these people want to join again?

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Ik weet niet hoe het komt. Maar elke keer dat ik dit schilderij in het Rijks zie, springen me de tranen in de ogen.

Still the UK had a problem. That growth per year was considerably less than those in neighbouring countries on the continent. Not a fan of the Conservatives at all, but the UK was lagging behind at the time.

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Negotiations on what exactly? The union the UK left doesn't exist anymore. And all the new terms were approved by the UK while they were still in it?

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That was just because the UK is a big country. Per tax payer the country was nowhere near the top contributors.

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Let's keep these threads up. I love it ❤️

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So. Whenever I engage a Brit who truly still believes that they were the best thing that ever happened to the EU, in the end I always get blocked. I call this a win ;)

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She blocked me. I won. Haha.

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You should know what we say when we want to get really vulgar. It's much worse. But that's just a cultural difference, and doesn't translate either way. Also a bit of fun when people from different cultures try to communicate in English. It was meant most harmless.

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Whut?! I've been quiet for more than half an hour 😆

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Because your original argument of the UK being a net contributor totally ignored the fact that for instance all EU member benefited from a stronger Spanish economy? Or the economy of a large number of 'newer' member states.

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Ok, forget about the 'poop'. That's just something that is quite light and funny, and clearly doesn't translate haha. My argument would still be, why focus on certain nations, and not see the overall picture?

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I think the expression 'pooping on heads' is still quite polite 🙃 Might be a Dutch thing haha. I simply mean your arguments mostly focus around a few countries, and doesn't say anything about the bigger picture. You never mentioned the economic miracles in Spain or Eastern Europe.

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But... the UK is a big country? And maybe the EU recently gave Poland some slack, because they're hosting a million Ukranian refugees, and also border Russia and Belarus? And what is that balance exactly? I only heard you say: we paid more. Which I debunked.

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So there we have it. Just poop on the heads of other nations. Well done, haha. Do you REALLY think leaders within the EU have missed these issues? And put the pressure on?

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You're not static facts. You are mostly implying the UK is a big country. Which is not really a new concept?

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The EU bloody bailed out Greece!

Current projections show that Poland could surpass the UK economy in a decade or two. Also, funds were hold back from Hungary, and that country is on they way back. And Poland is probably our strongest military ally right now. So what 'problems' exactly?!

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And while you're at it, this is what I mean about moaning about 'we gave so much to the EU'. You never did. It was always citizens in other nations giving more of their money to the EU.

Exactly. The EU is mostly a union of values, not just money. In the end we all benefit by helping countries develop faster than they could have on their own.

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Again, you can't just pick one single thing out of a whole complex financial system and claim that even without a rebate the UK wouldn't still have benefited hugely by simply being a member and paying its bills. This whole idea is so much NOT about what the EU is.

Of course. It's just the Brits who mostly bitched about it during the time they were in the EU. I'm glad to see that this whole system of rebates is gone, and is now handled in a way that is much more fair.

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This of course is nonsense. A country can be a net contributor to the EU. But you have to take into account how much the economy in total benefited from it in total. Completely different way of looking at it.

The article leaves out one very important thing Macron litterally said, and that's 'no cherry picking' 😉

Burnham zet hier wel een deur open. Hij weet ook dat het electoraal systeem drastisch moet worden aangepast, zodat partijen met een minderheid niet de macht kunnen gijzelen, zoals nu. Lijkt mij een harde voorwaarde voor 'Brussel', en zie het niet snel gebeuren.

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I do have some doubts about it. A re-join would mean no rebate, having to join the Euro (but there are ways of delaying this for decades) and joining Schengen. Is Burnham honest about this?

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All true. And all 27 leaders of EU member states are well aware of this. And would be happy to welcome the UK back. But only under the same terms that apply to all of these 27 member states. The rules are quite simple and clear?

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