Only seven percent of Britons see the current state of relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union as satisfactory, according to a poll by Tony Blair’s foundation, the Institute for Global Change, seven years after the referendum in favour of London’s exit from the European bloc.
The same poll also shows that a majority of respondents would vote to return to the European Union right now, and that one in five who voted to leave in 2016 believe their decision was wrong.
“Britons overwhelmingly support the idea of the UK moving closer to the EU over the next 10 to 15 years: 78 per cent of voters favour a closer future relationship, although their views on how to achieve this differ,” according to the poll.
“More specifically, 43 per cent have indicated that they would like the UK to rejoin the EU, 13 per cent choose the option of returning to the single market but remaining outside the EU, and 22 per cent support a closer trade and security relationship although they do not want the country to rejoin the EU or return to the single market,” according to the poll’s results.
As a result, he institute is calling for a new debate outside the huge constraints that currently dominate a conversation where only two options seem to be possible: “meet the EU or keep quiet”.
The experts understand the difficulty of such a development, because the country has to reassess a decision “associated with years of collective trauma”.
Remaining silent, the group adds, “implies accepting the inevitability that Brexit is what it is and avoiding confrontation with the political and economic realities that the country is going through today”.
The institute proposes a “decalogue” of measures to foster, whatever happens, “a special relationship between the UK and the European Union” through, for example, “voluntary alignment with EU food regulation”, the establishment of a new joint council for trade cooperation, or deepening security collaboration.
“On their own, these steps are unlikely to fix the UK’s short-term economic malaise,” the institute notes.
“However, if pursued in parallel with a well-designed set of domestic policies, they would become an essential component of restoring confidence in the UK economy after years of uncertainty and political instability,” it adds.