Forget it, Remainers, we’ll never rejoin the EU... and here’s why
Most voters now think Brexit was a mistake, claims a poll. But the #FBPE crew shouldn’t get their hopes up
Thirty years ago, Harry Enfield used to perform sketches about a character called Jurgen the German: a weird and pathetically ingratiating tourist who would go round Britain, prostrating himself before startled strangers while wailing unsolicited apologies for “the conduct of my nation in the war”.
I hope Mr Enfield will be back on TV soon, because now he could do a new version of the sketch with the roles reversed. This time, a die-hard Remainer could go round Germany, prostrating himself before startled strangers while wailing unsolicited apologies for “the conduct of my nation in the referendum”. And then apologise even more abjectly for saying all this in English, because sadly, like everyone else in his hopeless, backward, racist little homeland, he can’t speak any foreign languages.
Then again, such a character would probably be feeling quite cheerful at the moment. This is because a new poll suggests that a clear majority of voters now think Brexit was a mistake.
Even if true, though, he shouldn’t get his hopes up. In reality, there’s zero prospect of Brexit being overturned.
Thinking Brexit is going badly is not the same as wanting to rejoin the EU. First, few voters could stomach another referendum. Second, the terms of membership would now be different. We would no longer have our rebate, so membership would be more expensive. And these days, countries joining the EU are required to join the euro, too. Is there really a majority for abolishing the pound?
Perhaps the key question, though, is this. Would the EU even want us back? Eurosceptic feeling in Britain is so deeply ingrained, Brussels would have little faith we’d actually stay.
In the eyes of the EU, I suspect, Britain is like a cat. Let us back in, and within moments we’d be noisily clamouring to get back out again. DT.
