It's not going to happen. I'd love the UK to rejoin the EU but there isn't the political will to do, either here or in the EU27. Remember too it only takes any one of the remaining constituent nations to veto any membership consideration - and that's only after a process of political wrangling which can take a decade or more. If international treaties are famous for anything, it's that they are formed at glacial pace.<p>I'm also doubtful the public will is there in the UK, either. I wish I could say with confidence that if we had another referendum tomorrow on whether to rejoin or stay out, rejoin would comfortably win but I can't. It's one of those things which seems so obvious if you support one side, you just can't see how the other can possibly take the position they do.<p>In respect of the site, it's not going to persuade anyone who was either in favour of Brexit or on the fence, is it? It's clearly designed to preach to the choir. But partisanship and ideological bubbles is how we ended up in such a mess in the first place. If any campaign is serious about rejoining, they need to accept two things, IMO - first, that it's a generational cause, not something which will be achieved within a few years, and second, that any campaign will only succeed by making concessions with the EU and the pro-Brexit faction among the public, by understanding them and by forming a new relationship. To call this task gargantuan is an understatement.
In my personal politics, Brexit was a disaster to crown the Tories’ slow descent from covert stupidity to overt flip-flopping chaos.<p>That said, this site just lacks the appeal to me. The rickroll is cute, but it just underlines a website style which feels a bit unserious, and while I certainly think this sort of thing shouldn’t be dry and depressing, it does sort of undercut it (especially considering the privacy popup is full-screen on mobile, which is a design no-no in my eyes).<p>As much as I hate to say it, the best course of action is to lean into rhetoric on key data points, like the infamous “£350m to NHS” on the side of a bus. While the site clearly feels like a project of serious passion, it feels like it lacks any punchiness, any meaningful slogans, any real impetus. “We want our star back” as a slogan implies to me that this site’s focus is preaching to the converted, which will at best put people off and at worst distract people from ways they can actually encourage better UK-EU relations.<p>This isn’t something that will even be on the table for likely a good general election or three, but even still, it feels like a focus on figures with a minimalist style would be a better approach.<p>While Don’t Pay UK [1] sort of had a rough time, you can’t deny their website and approach to messaging is quite appealing, probably because they’ve been taking notes from the Civil Service’s own excellent design style for the gov.uk site [2]. Then it’s a case of re-injecting a bit of flair into the style, star-based or otherwise, rather than going all in on CSS animations that undercut the message.<p>[1] <a href="https://dontpay.uk" rel="nofollow">https://dontpay.uk</a><p>[2] <a href="https://design-system.service.gov.uk/" rel="nofollow">https://design-system.service.gov.uk/</a>
I wonder how the EU thinks about this.<p>There are clearly good sides. The UK is still a big and powerfull country, nobody wants Irish or Scottish political instability, and it's a great morale booster to have a leaver come back.<p>But the UK had plenty of dark sides. They always wanted an exception for everything, with the pound not being an euro the famous example. The UK firmly pushed the EU in the 'economic union' direction, so now the advocates of deeper political unification get a chance. There was the only-half-joke from Yes Minister about how the UK only joined because they couldn't break the EU from the outside.<p>I presume the UK has not really demonstrated what really happens outside the EU. First Covid and now Ukraine are 2 major excuses for bad news, so the pro-leavers can still claim they are right. The EU probably wants to see some more pain in the UK first, to convince other doubters. But not too much.<p>So while the UK probably could get back in, it might be on much less favorable terms than they had in the past and take a while.
You can come back if you like, but no more special treatment and no exceptions for you anymore.<p>And you would probably need to give up the pound as well.<p>And change your driving direction from left to right.
As much as I'd love for my country to return to the fold, there are too many idiots destroying the UK from the inside to even consider rejoining. First the Tories must self destruct and spend decades out of power.