> It's politically toxic.

I think you're probably correct, as only the Green Party seem to be committing to moving back in (one reason I'm considering voting non-Labour for the first time in my life). I wonder though, do you think this will last forever, especially in the face of consistent polling suggesting that twice as many people think it was a bad idea as think it was a good one? [0]

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/987347/brexit-opinion-po...

My guess is Labour once in power will move to undo some of the more stupid bits of Brexit like having different animal health regs so you can't export fish or meat without great difficulty. I can't see full rejoining in the near future but maybe becoming more like Norway or Switzerland.

I hope you're right about bringing alignment with EU regs, although I'm not optimistic, given how safe Starmer seems to want to play it.

I didn’t vote for it, and think Brexit was bad, but also agree that the EU is overly bureaucratic, un-democratic, and doesn’t see countries as truly autonomous (eg tries to be redistribute wealth between the countries). The best scenario now is probably somewhere in the middle.

The EU today is significantly different to the original idea, but I can see the UK entering into the single market and military partnerships etc (contrary to popular opinion, there are lots of free trade agreements worldwide that don’t have full regulatory alignment!).

I understand where you're coming from. I agree that the EU needs a lot of work. I'd just prefer if we were in it getting stuck in and spear-heading that transformation.

However, what I'm really wondering is whether (and when) there will be a gradual political shift in the UK towards rejoining.