There are 100K Australians in the UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australians_in_the_United_King...

There are 900K plus Australians who were born in the UK. Australians who have a British parent or grandparent and can thus get a UK passport would number in the millions.

https://www.sbs.com.au/news/almost-30-per-cent-of-the-austra...

Two of Australia's last 3 Prime Ministers did part of their University Education in the UK.

The ties between Australia and the UK are substantial. Many Australians would be keen to work with the UK for some kind of trade deal.

A CANZUK style deal wouldn't be the EU, but it might be beneficial to the countries involved.

> Australians who have a British parent or grandparent and can thus get a UK passport would number in the millions

Generally speaking, a British grandparent does not get you UK citizenship, only a British parent does. (There are various obscure exceptions to that generalisation, but they don't apply to the vast majority of cases.)

True, it's not citizenship, but a British grandparent gets you the right to work in the UK which can then get you a British passport.

> Except the ex-colonies want nothing to do with the UK.

But they all signed trade agreements with the UK? So this is clearly not true.

Everyone wants trade with everyone to their benefit. We also want to be friends and play cricket.

But there is no discussion of the other things related to CANZUK in Australia and NZ. We don't want open borders with the UK or to roll back the clock to the empire. Almost everything to do with CANZUK is a fantasy used to deflect from the very real problems associated with leaving the EU.

> Everyone wants trade with everyone to their benefit. We also want to be friends and play cricket.

Wait wait wait a second ago you said they 'want nothing to do with the UK', now you're saying they want to trade, and play sports? Clearly not 'nothing to do' is it?

We don't want anything to do with them in the context of an EU replacement including open borders or any form of of political or monetary union. The UK is a part of our history and we will always have ties. I don't think there is any will to give them preferential treatment over other trading partners. We are looking out for ourselves and any mistakes the UK makes they are going to have to wear like adults.

We are not getting the Empire band back together. I know modern conservatives have lost the plot but we can't turn back time like that. CANZUK as popularly described is a complete fantasy.

The reality is as sovereign nations trying to have influence in our own regions, often with countries with their own experiences of colonialism, any signs of subservience to an ex-colonial power is far more of a hindrance than a help.

I do support stronger ties between Canada, Australia and NZ though.

>> We don't want anything to do with them in the context of an EU replacement

>> We are not getting the Empire band back together

CANZUK would have no political union component so how can you maintain the EU and especially the British Empire comparison?

> take the influx of economic refugees.

https://www.desmos.com/calculator/xkveiyy6w5

> Except the ex-colonies want nothing to do with the UK.

That's a wild exaggeration. The UK is a tremendous export market for the US, we want everything to do with them, there is a lot in it for us ($700 billion per decade in purchased goods). Plus we have a rough split on trade, one of the few major nations we don't have a large trade deficit with.

The British import more US goods than the Germans do, and nearly as much as the Japanese do, with a far smaller economy.

In the context of this subthread about CANZUK, we're talking about Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, not the US. That said, sure, those countries have plenty of ties to the UK as well.