Indeed, trade deals and international relationships are bipartisan issues, labour’s last leader was anti EU for decades. The party lines in the UK are drawn along class and aspirational values, not policy decisions- although when a referendum is called 2 sides always step out to divide up the electorate in their favour

Agree. I'd always argue that this was broadly an anti austerity / inequality vote: people just basically pissed off with having a rubbish life voting against some notion of "authority" or "centralisation".

The sad fact is that it's exactly these people (in the Midlands, NE, those on lower wages, in rural communities, etc) who (generalising a bit, not much) voted out - these are the communities who will be hit hardest.

I think this analysis has been shown to be false. This does not apply to significant majority of leavers.

It explains a minor boost on the left, not main leaver sentiment.

Agree. I personally think Labour blew it, big time. But: the lies that got us out of the EU were pretty unstoppable. Selling an out message on the back of sensationalist, shock messages was an easy PR hit.

We'll see. Personally, I'll always feel and be European. I reckon we'll be back.

It's perfectly consistent to feel European and also feel that EU membership is not a net positive for the UK. Being pro-Brexit does not make one less of a European.

Um. Finding it hard to parse this..?

The European identity is not tied to the European union but to a shared culture and history. Or are Swiss and Norse people also not European?

The EU vote in Norway almost 30 years ago was very, very different from the British Brexit affair. Luckily for us Norwegians, we didn't suffer from anyone like Mark Francois, for example.

Of course you could say that Brexit has nothing to do with British culture.

The point is that European culture is not linked to the European Union.

I'd say they're linked insofar as the European Union was created by and continues to evolve through European culture.

> The EU vote in Norway almost 30 years ago was very, very different from the British Brexit affair

It was driven by the same core concerns about national sovereignty.

Yes, but expressed in culturally different way. As I wrote, no Mark Francois for us. He's an important politician due to the peculiar British current political culture.

EDIT: I meant "peculiarly British", but I haven't the heart to edit that typo.

Yeah sure, as long as you get your paperwork ready and book your visas ahead of time

Well Labour will just waste another decade campaigning to rejoin the EU which has so far has been nothing but a complete failure given the last 3 consecutive election defeats since the referendum vote.

Here's to another decade of Labour being out of government. (Again).

It may be an easier sell once the consequences of Brexit are less theoretical and more practical for a few years.

Perhaps, perhaps not.

IIRC the forecast economic damage is lost opportunity for growth rather than immediate losses, and any actual immediate losses could be easily dismissed (especially by this lot) as “COVID losses, not Brexit”.

It's unclear whether the collapse of the European banking system will have the effect of boosting support for rejoining the EU, but it's not impossible.