World politics are quite grim at the moment. Having the UK rejoin would be a great signal for a unified Europe.
It probably won't happen, but one may dream.
this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2025
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It's going to be blocked by the lords and then silently killed.
I still say Scotland and Wales should scram and join us on their own. Ireland was due reunification last year anyway.
Wales voted to leave.
Yeah cool, but they won't that should be clear for everybody.
True, it is very unlikely that this will directly lead to anything. However, it might at least force Labour to clarify where they stand. Tories and Reform are against rejoining. LibDem, SNP, Plaid, and Greens are for rejoining. And Labour are officially against rejoning... right now, but it was still definitely a mistake to leave in the first place and they would undo it if they could. This debate would hopefully start Labour on a path to step down from the fence.
Seems possible it could open the door to other possibilities too. Like sure they probably aren't going to rejoin any time soon but strengthening collaboration with the EU is possible without full membership.
Yeah... The petition directly goes against the government's manifesto, so I seriously doubt this'll do very much
There's such a prevailing vibe that the EU would want us back too... What if they don't?
I mean, after events of this week, it's probably more likely, but even then they'd be well within their rights to tell us to sod off.
EU doesn't want to renegotiate all the trade deals and all the aggreements and mutual rulings with an unruly child of a country that still thinks that they are more important than anyone else. More importantly they aren't fans of an idea of doing it every three months or whatever.
But if the UK will get their shit together and will want to join for real and be a good member of the Union, I am sure everyone aggrees that they are more than welcome.
Agree we (the UK) canβt be on-again-off-again partners in the European project, though if things shift enough that we were properly in on it itβd help to have another big player to offset populists like Orban getting their claws in.
Even during early phases of Brexis the EU was open to the UK rejoining - in an official manner.
I don't see why that would have changed. If the UK wants to rejoin, it can apply, and the join process will start. It's simple, really.
I am not familiar with the political system of the UK at all, but am very interested what kind of consequences and official stuff are to be expected during and after the debate? Is anyone here having fun elaborating? Thanks.
Theyβll say itβs still too soon. Itβll be like ten minutes.
They already responded to the petition it's there in the website, the discussion will just be more of the same
Has the King any role in this? Either by law or because of his own mind? I mean he is one of UK's biggest influencers, no?
Besides some media coverage what follows? Also what about the person(s) who submitted this petition? Will they be included in the process, for example by being invited to present the cause? And are there moments in history where petitions made an actual difference already during this official act or right after it (e.g. some MP or the Government changed their mind surprisingly)?
The king's role is entirely ceremonial and the monarch does not express a political option. England is a parliamentary democracy and the king gives his blessing to whatever parliament puts in front of him. Some anti-monarchists argue that the rotalss are a very expensive tourist attraction at this point, and useless drain on public funds.
I don't know the exact ins and outs of the parliamentary process. There must be some previous example of a petition changing something at some point.....but I would think of that an as an exceedingly rare exception.
genuine question: What would the consequences of the king not giving his blessing to whatever parliament puts in front of him be? What would the law see as the next step? Would there be a parliamentary tool in place to "override" the king?
I don't know. Considering that the king does whatever parliament tells him, this has never come up. I don't know what the details are of the rules and processes.
This point will get raised in Parliament because they are technically obliged to. They'll quickly decide that they cannot persue rejoining the EU and they must continue with making the best they can of Brexit. Nothing will come of this.
I appreciate your answer, but I posted some follow-up questions here to maintain overview. Maybe you like to post over there to enlighten me further.
It's still a poignant exercise though.
I think it's worth remembering how the UK ended up in this position.
It also hilights the irony of leaving the EU, and then working on mitigating all the problems of being isolated from the EU, while avoiding rejoining.
It's inevitable that the UK will rejoin, for all the reasons that brexit was a stupid idea. The only question is how many decades need to elapse before it's politically palatable to propose rejoining
Is rejoining the EU even compatible with being in the CPTPP?
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