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UK could keep special pre-Brexit terms if it rejoined EU, Michel Barnier says
(www.theguardian.com)
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this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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I get what Barnier is saying - he wants the UK to rejoin and polls in the UK show clearly that there is only support for rejoining if the Euro and Schengen Zone opt outs are still there (not sure about the financial opt outs being as much as an issue, but of course that will play in any referendum).
But it doesn't really solve the fundamental issues. The problem is the UK wanting such opt outs shows politically it currently doesn't want to be in this version of the EU. Negotiating a rejoining with those opt outs just perpetuates the political problems the UK has and never gets us to face up to the realities.
I wanted to remain in the EU, but I honestly would be in 2 minds about voting to rejoin at the moment. Brexit was all consuming and distracted from a lot of other important issues for the UK, and rejoining would be the same. Leaving the EU hasn't been a positive but it also frankly hasn't been as bad many remainers like me feared.
It was bizarrely far worse when we had politicians obsessing over the EU and not sorting out the problems with the economy, healthcare, social care, energy and education. One big benefit of leaving the EU is that the buck stops with Westminster - now politicians on the right can't lie and blame all our problems on Brussels. We do now have direct democratic accountability, and also pro-EU politicians can point to the EU being part of the solution to some of the problems, as it's clearly not the cause of the problems.
We're nowhere near ready to be a stable committed member of the EU. We really need to fix the UK first - and that for me is electoral reform with proportional representation, well before we think about rejoining. Even rejoining the customs union or single market are just distractions from the real ills in UK politics. We need democratic reform before we can ever be a stable and worthy member of the EU. The EU didn't cause us to have 5 conservative prime ministers in 5 years, nor what looks likely to now be 2 labour prime ministers in the current 5 year parliament.