Beware the Brexit reset backlash. New post on my Brexit & Beyond Blog. With the reset barely begun, the Brexiters' vicious backlash against it is gathering force. But the reset has good justification (& those dismissing it as trivial should beware): chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/bewa... - ThreadSky

chrisgrey.bsky.social • 73 days ago

Beware the Brexit reset backlash. New post on my Brexit & Beyond Blog. With the reset barely begun, the Brexiters' vicious backlash against it is gathering force. But the reset has good justification (& those dismissing it as trivial should beware):
https://chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com/2024/12/beware-brexit-reset-backlash.html

Comments

vadkakukk.bsky.social•73 days ago

Tiptoeing around, trying not to fix too much in case it upsets the faragists, is not a workable plan. Anything that is acheived will simply be undone in 2029.

petersturdgess.bsky.social•72 days ago

If the government really wanted to be bold they could kick off a series of unilateral initiatives to achieve regulatory harmony. No Brexiters could argue against these as they are solely UK initiatives and would send the strongest possible signal to the EU that we mean business about free trade.

chrisgrey.bsky.social•72 days ago

It has, as linked to in the post: https://encompass-europe.com/comment/regulatory-alignment-the-unspoken-part-of-the-uks-eu-reset

petersturdgess.bsky.social•72 days ago

Chris, the final paragraph of your piece states we have a choice of systemic or sporadic regulatory alignment. As I understand it the measures being taken at the moment fall into the sporadic camp. I would argue that we should be going hell for leather for the systemic model.

chrisgrey.bsky.social•72 days ago

It's not "my piece" - but I agree with your point

deancheviotview.bsky.social•73 days ago

As ever thought provoking. My only issue is with the suggestion that the backlash would be even worse than it already is if Lab were bolder. Given that the pro brexit right and their media allies are already "chucking the kitchen sink" at them I'm not sure how much more worse it could be .

chrisgrey.bsky.social•73 days ago

On that, I think the main point I tried to make (as per screengrab below) was that if being "bolder" = breaking the red lines, then the backlash would be far worse, and far more effective, because it would accurately be able to point to breaking a major, clear, and central manifesto commitment.

andrewmne.bsky.social•73 days ago

An odd feature of the "betrayal " shrieks is that any reset would only be bringing the UK nearer the softer brexit both leave campaigns suggested when they did go near any concrete proposals-Farage's repeated "what's so bad about Norway?" . " No one is threatening our place in the Single Market"

deborahsussex.bsky.social•72 days ago

And surely the UK has exercised its " sovereignty " by choosing to have closer relationships with the EU.

andrewmne.bsky.social•72 days ago

To the brexitists , democracy stopped in June 2016. After that, whatever they think should happen becomes " the will of the people."

It's funny that during the referendum, the term they used was always "parliamentary sovereignty." It dropped the first word when parliament started exercising it.

dune400.bsky.social•73 days ago

Great piece, thanks 4 also saying how Lab are culpable

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•73 days ago

It's interesting to ponder what it is Brexiters want.

If they wanted money, the UK is poorer.

If they wanted power, the UK is less powerful and by default so are they.

If they wanted sovereignty, the UK is a rule taker.

What do they really want?

simonpease.bsky.social•72 days ago

Self, self, self.

ianafraser.bsky.social•73 days ago

To make Britain great again. However, they do not understand what great means. They show zero long term thinking about social foundation, ecological ceiling and future generations. #GoodAncestor

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•73 days ago

Great answer!

vadkakukk.bsky.social•73 days ago

With the pieces that are on the board, the best move would be to break up their land of hope and glory, and let the independent countries who do have enough support to rejoin, start the process.

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•73 days ago

That is the worst timing for any of the nations to leave yet another common market.

This is what Putin wants, and I am always dead against what Putin wants just because Putin wants it.

vadkakukk.bsky.social•73 days ago

A Scotland with access to the SM will be fine for potatoes and grain. England, on the other hand, will either lose access to energy, and see an exodus of businesses and ProEU citizens, or it will be forced to follow suit.

Putin doesn't want Scotland, with its oil, to join the EU.

chrisgrey.bsky.social•72 days ago

It's a really good question. The answer starts from recognizing that there was no one 'they', and that ending EU membership became a screen upon which all sorts of contradictory desires could be projected. Beyond that, it needs a book, not a social media post!

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•72 days ago

Thanks Chris.

I feel its inevitable that many books will be written.

discofornow.bsky.social•73 days ago

They want to do what they're told by Putin's psy-ops campaigns. They don't need to understand why.

steveharvey2001.bsky.social•73 days ago

Tax dodging and money laundering

aardgoose.info•72 days ago

The world of their childhood.

chrisgrey.bsky.social•72 days ago

I think that this - or nostalgia, generally, including nostalgia for an unexperienced but culturally remembered past - is a big part of the answer, and not just re Brexit but re populism in US, France etc.

harrycovert.bsky.social•69 days ago

Sometimes I think people vote, not just for the rosy glow of yesteryear, but to be young again.

aardgoose.info•69 days ago

I saw an apt cartoon a while ago. A person speaking to their elderly parent telling them "things weren't better then, it is you who were better", which very much reflected my mother's attitude at that time.

chillaxbcn.bsky.social•72 days ago

In quite a few cases I think it wasn't so much that they wanted something. It was their hatred of the EU and foreigners that was enough. In other cases it was not hatred but 'we're British, better, superior, Global Britain, Empire, arrogance'. In some cases it was about power, money, greed.

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•72 days ago

That's very extreme.

chillaxbcn.bsky.social•72 days ago

What is your explanation?

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•72 days ago

I haven't seen what you are describing. It's like the English exceptionalism thing. A caricature.

chillaxbcn.bsky.social•72 days ago

So what have you seen? Surely Brexiters didn't want Brexit just for fun.

carolej.bsky.social•72 days ago

Deregulation.

punshhh.bsky.social•71 days ago

“What do we want? Less foreigners.
When do we want it? Now”
James O Brien

paul-brennan.bsky.social•73 days ago

Excellent piece, although something of an invitation to wallow in the tepid bath of managed decline! I do wonder whether, if the economic difficulties of Germany & France continue, a more combative approach might prove more productive in the long run. Of course that’s what Farage will say.😕

kathylove.bsky.social•73 days ago

Paul, could you explain a bit further what you have in mind with ‘if the economic difficulties of Germany & France continue, a more combative approach might prove more productive’? Combative against whom and to achieve what?

paul-brennan.bsky.social•73 days ago

The centrists in Germany & France need economic growth & an easy fix would be to reduce barriers to trade with the UK. Self-harming though it may be for the UK in the short term, looking to increase those barriers & even threatening to reduce military co-operation might provoke a change in attitude.

paul-brennan.bsky.social•73 days ago

I don’t like the idea, and I certainly didn’t vote for Brexit. But Remain lost the referendum & as that result was confirmed with the election of Johnson’s Government and its subsequent actions, we have to live with the consequences, unappetising though they may be.

mermaidspursej.bsky.social•73 days ago

That's great Paul.

Threaten my insulin supplies to prove a point.

I'll be sure to thank you in my will.

paul-brennan.bsky.social•73 days ago

Perhaps the point could be proved in such a way as not to threaten insulin supplies. I’m not suggesting that we should ban all imports from the EU.

kathylove.bsky.social•73 days ago

And what would you be asking the EU to do?

paul-brennan.bsky.social•73 days ago

Good point. Access to the single market for products and services where there is regulatory alignment but without freedom of movement? The have cake and eat it Brexit that Brexiteers dreamed of, though I guess they don’t want to have to tolerate regulatory alignment either, in which case 🤷🏼‍♂️

jmolofsson.bsky.social•73 days ago

"Access" as in FoM for services but not for capital and for goods but not for labour?

exrevtony.bsky.social•73 days ago

I can't remember which Commissioner it was who said, long before the referendum was proposed, "We will never contemplate a Europe in which lorries and hedge funds can move freely across borders, but citizens cannot."
Whoever it was, was right then and is still right now.

robfitzgerald.bsky.social•73 days ago

The barriers are UK barriers because of UK choices. The centrists would love the UK to reverse them but that's not likely. The military co-operation thing. No words other than wtf?

paul-brennan.bsky.social•73 days ago

Yes, the barriers are there because of the choice we made. What’s the best way for Labour to reduce them bearing in mind the BS that will come from Farage & co? And I don’t mean withdrawing from NATO, but being more reticent about intelligence sharing etc. What other negotiating tools have we got?

robfitzgerald.bsky.social•73 days ago

I'm on the euro side btw. Id directly take on Farage/Reform. Not pussyfoot around. Ridicule them. It's not hard. So many examples of them being wrong. Labour are mimicking their ideas. They're such a let down. When accused of 'reversing Brexit' they should say yes we're reversing Brexit, it's shit

davidtemporal.bsky.social•73 days ago

Great contribution as usual Chris. Well thought through, evidenced and clearly articulated,

holyflowerpots.bsky.social•73 days ago

Thank you for your continued measured analysis. Here’s to a reset in 2025

skullkidtermina.bsky.social•73 days ago

Isn’t the ‘beware’ bit exactly what has labour paralysed?

I don’t want to hear any more about what ‘they’ will do

I want to see Farage on TV every day, being put to the sword the way he was on QT when his ‘boring, boring’ play to the gallery fell flat, so he can finally be seen for what he is

brexitrage.bsky.social•73 days ago

The comprehensive cross-party case for Rejoining EU is ready to mail to MPs, influencers and MSM.

Get your copy of the White Paper, Exec summary and template letters via:

https://mailchi.mp/ff8b169aa3ec/4ynx9wuyiv-13868170/

#Reboot #Rejoin #BrexitDisaster #BrexitElephant

discofornow.bsky.social•73 days ago

I understand that ripping off a plaster quickly is much less painful than peeling it off a bit at a time. Better to have a short period of right wing animosity in the press, than to feed them ammunition every week.

dpmanchee.bsky.social•73 days ago

Yet another great post. And best wishes to you for Christmas and the New Year.

Regarding Jacob Rees-Mogg's views he can keep them to GB News and reality TV ! I'm just glad he's no longer my MP.

celticdolphin.bsky.social•73 days ago

It’s our biggest problem trying to explain the complex,technical & nuanced advantages of the EU.
Against the simple sound bites of popularism.
Particularly with a biased media & against the now, Cognitive dissonance of Brexiters.
It’s a huge failing not blaming Brexit for our financial woes.