It's an echo chamber of the proved-right but we've not got to a majority to rejoin without people discussing how crap Brexit is (with some still believing it could have worked and not accepting it was all bases on fantasy and lies). So long as there are unrepentant Leave lurkers, the work of persuasion goes on.I think the reason most of us despair so much is unlike General Elections, we can’t reverse it a few years down the track. We have unilaterally decided to make ourselves poorer and more isolated - and there’s nothing that can be done to go back. We’ve inflicted a wound upon ourselves which is not going to heal for many years. And it was completely unnecessary. No-one made us do it.
This thread gives some of us an outlet to vent about all that. That has been the principal function of this thread for some time, and widely known as such. And will remain so, most likely.
I hardly talk about Brexit in the real world. I rant to my girlfriend about it once a fortnight, possibly less these days; apologise to my son whenever I see him (about once a month) and take the piss out of my Brexit voting mates (who I know can take it). Did that yesterday to someone I know who’s a judge, (unusually) a working class Tory who voted to leave. Thanked him for it and said he must be pleased with how well it’s going! He laughed and gave as much back!
Others on here live and breathe it, but I definitely don’t. But I thought it was a huge mistake and sadly I’ve been proved correct, and coming on here, into this echo chamber, gives me an outlet that prevents me being an insufferable bore about the subject in the real world. If it makes me a bore on this thread, then I’ll live with that.
We do need to move on, and make the most of it though. I fully accept that. Hopefully Starmer will be more hawkish about realigning in some ways, once elected. I think that will soothe a lot of the wounds. At least for me.
For a start, nearly everyone now understands why Starmer has ruled out rejoining. Getting all the other EU members to have us back just looks a non-starter. But not diverging more from EU regs, and rejoining scientific ventures etc are obvious ways to stop the damage being worse.