UK Politics

uk spending more money on defense is just grifting by contractors, uk is not assailable and surrounded by allies, but i'm sure more sas war criminals are always needed for guardian of israel to murder some people somewhere. Also money laundering gone to uae, so that seems meh for the financial services economy (10% of gdp, no?).

Aligning to eu makes sense in any case

In the other, the Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Ed Davey, called for Britain to join the customs union by 2030 as part of a larger deal with Europe.

Would the EU actually accept us joining the EUCU without joining the EEA?

Thoughts?

Labour isn't willing to lose 30-40% of it's voters. Cold hard truth. Thus they will never countenance rejoin on any level.

Closer "defence" arrangements is as far as they will go.

I don't care about 'threats' from Russia or China, nothing more than new Red Scare propaganda. So, that point can be thrown in the ~~trash~~ rubbish bin.

Joining the customs union would boost trade by eliminating most taxes on imports and exports with EU member states. It would place Britain behind a European tariff wall with the rest of the world. It would help to align rules which, as Sir Ed pointed out, mean that a UK air cargo company currently has to service its planes in the US rather than in Europe. And it would reduce some of the red tape created by Britain’s own post-Brexit regulations.

What will EU even import from the UK? Does it even want British goods? Is there even enough demand backed by purchasing power in the EU countries given their own economic stagnation? Relying on exports as a source of demand is a terrible idea, especially when the Government isn't willing to step in if and when there are any shocks.

The economic reasons are more valid, I think more open trade between EU and UK would be good. But it's not going to fix U.K's problems in any way, that requires Government to do stuff and increase spending, which it isn't going to do.