Steve P 🔶️

The UK Government. Initially under Theresa May, then confirmed by every Government since.

You know the answer.

Originally, Theresa May's government. Then every successive government since.

Neither do I, and I'm English.

Where he's from is totally irrelevant.

The UK decided it didn't want FoM.

That's the cold, hard truth.

That's the paragraph immediately after the one you posted.

You missed this:

All these measures will help to restore the British economy and the prosperity and opportunities of its citizens, and are also essential steps on the road to EU membership, which remains our longer-term objective.

It'll reach a tipping point, then the politicians will jump. We need to keep pushing to reach the tipping point ASAP.

Once there's political will, things will move fairy quickly.

It's up to Government, but they'refar too timid.

For our part, we need to get out and vote for pro-EU parties, and badger our MPs.

The party membership does, as do many MPs. The leadership, however, doesn't. They'd rather have the Tories in power than form a stable governing coalition with other progressive parties.

There are lots of people in the EU who are rightfully sceptical. It's down to the UK to show we can be trusted.

With the right government, we'd get PR in the next Parliament.

If Labour grew a pair, we'd get it done before the next GE.

We *did* state our desire to join the EU. It was in our manifesto.

We're just honest enough to say it won't happen overnight.

PR. We have a progressive majority in the UK, as demonstrated by the vote share in virtually every GE over the last century.

It really wouldn't. It may give them more MPs in the short term, but there's no way they'd end up in a governing coalition.

Under FPTP, however, they could very conceivably win a majority with just 30% of the vote.

Our electoral system could return a sizeable ReFUK majority on 30% of the vote. That's the current reality.

And in that reality, nothing's going to move forward.

You seem to be labouring under the misapprehension that we could bind a future Parliament led by mini-Trump.

We need to lock him out *before* we head to the negotiating table.

Nobody's pretending we can't do it, but there's no point even asking until we've reformed our electoral system.

Do you really think the EU will agree to regulatory alignment when there's a chance that a Farage government with 30% of the vote will undo it?

You seem to want us to lie to the electorate.

Anyone can promise to rejoin the EU straight away, but it's a promise that can't be kept. I know it, you know it, and so does Polanski.

We do. It was in our 2024 manifesto.

Customs Union & Electoral reform first. Then we can look at rejoining the EU.

The manifesto commitments were pretty clear, as are the obstacles.

Overcoming the obstacles is necessary. I'd prefer to be honest about that.

Here for starters:

bsky.app/profile/hamm...

It's on another branch somewhere. Lib Dems 2024 manifesto confirms that rejoining the EU is our long-term objective.

However, without electoral reform (also Lib Dem policy) it's not going to happen. Hence negotiating a Customs Union first.

This has already been addressed upthread.

They're not. This was in our 2024 manifesto (as was electoral reform).

I suspect our position will be even more explicit for the next GE.

I'm referring specifically to the Lib Dem policy, not the current UK Government. Lib Dem policy is to ultimately seek to rejoin the EU, and we said so at the last General Election.

I fully agree that the UK needs to prove it's a reliable partner before we can even consider full regulatory alignment.

It's a matter of bandwidth. A Customs Union is relatively simple to negotiate compared to the alternatives. Negotiations running in parallel with electoral reform will demonstrate UK goodwill.

Again: already addressed upthread. Anything over & above a Customs Union is pointless without prior UK electoral reform. The EU won't want anything more ambitious with the threat of a Farage-led government hanging over it.

I'm aware of that. As already explained upthread, it's the starting point.

*going*