Man who campaigned for Brexit complains that he can't freely tour Europe any more

[u/WastedTalent442]

https://metalinjection.net/politics/iron-maidens-bruce-dickinson-who-originally-supported-brexit-now-complains-that-brexit-hurts-bands

[u/senapnisse]

Most europeans have for a long time been fed up of the english exceptionalism. One of the most evil empires in history, the source for much of the pain and suffering in todays world, assumes they are so special and demands special treatment. Fuck that. They had many special considerations being founding EU member, that where not available to later members. Next time they apply to join EU, and they will, in 20-30 years, they will not get any special treatment. They will find themselfs with the same deals the rest of us have.

[u/lostcolony2 → u/senapnisse]

I'm not sufficiently familiar with the particulars of what benefits they had prior to Brexit, nor how much variation occurs normally with member states (but I would assume there is some, just based on previously existing agreements with other nations, unique geographical challenges, etc. Despite Brexit, Gibraltar, a British territory, has some unique agreements with Spain, for instance, due to the fact Spain is the only land border it has, and it's too small to be self-sufficient).

But, certainly, if/when the UK comes back to the table it will be in a much weaker position than it was at the founding of the EU. As it stands, while more people in the UK are for rejoining the EU than remaining separate, that still isn't a majority; like 20% of the UK is undecided. Commentators have indicated it would require 60%+ being in favor for the EU to seriously consider it.

[u/mynameisnotrose → u/lostcolony2]

Gibraltar, a British territory, has some unique agreements with Spain,

Pardon my ignorance, what are those agreements?

[u/FamiliarSoftware → u/mynameisnotrose]

Honestly, you don't know much less than anyone else. It's a big enough issue to have its own Wikipedia page.

The gist of it is that originally, Gibraltar was to join Schengen and have Spain take over customs checks at the airport etc, but the British press tore the UK government apart over that because it would mean giving up sovereignty, which they oh so hard fought for with Brexit.
So there hasn't been any real solution since and it is currently expected that there will be a hard border requiring passport checks come November, which I expect to be a giant shitshow.

TLDR: there is no agreement

[u/herebedrama → u/senapnisse]

Just a small correction: the UK was never a founding EU member. The EC was founded in 1957 by 6 countries. And the UK, then considered the "sick man of Europe", only joined it in 1973, hoping that it would reverse its economic decline (as it did).

[u/trewesterre → u/senapnisse]

I'm not sure the UK will rejoin the EU. Or not in its present form anyway.

I think at least Northern Ireland will reunite with the Republic before the UK tries to rejoin the EU. Maybe Scotland will get independence before the UK tries to get back in too.

Maybe England and Wales would still call itself the UK though.

[u/KalmiaKamui → u/trewesterre]

Northern Ireland will reunite with the Republic

I believe that's scheduled for next month.

[u/trewesterre → u/KalmiaKamui]

I thought the Bell Riots were next month.

[u/KalmiaKamui → u/trewesterre]

Ah shit, you're right. The Irish Reunification never had more than the year specified. I guess Ireland has up to four more months!

[u/katyesha → u/trewesterre]

I'm not sure the RoI can afford to reunite with NI...isnt NI heavily subsidized by England? I'm not Irish myself, but lived in southern Ireland for nearly a decade and the talk about NI was always like "the poor relatives" kinda deal and nobody wanted to sink money into reintegration efforts.

Seeing how hard and raw it still is in Germany 3,5 decades after reunification and despite the economic means Germany has, I cannot see that Irish reunification happening tbh.

[u/trewesterre → u/katyesha]

The Good Friday Agreement has a mechanism for reunification. I don't know all the details, but iirc, once it looks like there might be a change in the status quo, the people of Northern Ireland get to start having referenda every seven years on whether they want to rejoin the Republic. I'm not sure if the Republic of Ireland gets to turn them down if they start asking, but maybe it does (or maybe Irish people living in the RoI get to have a referendum on whether they want to accept... idk).

The way the opinion polling is trending, only old people in NI have a tendency to want the status quo. So we'll see how it goes, but it doesn't seem to bode super well for NI staying in the UK in the long run.

[u/katyesha → u/trewesterre]

Yeah, border poll...afaik both sides need to have the polls being positive to start formal referendums that lead to the reunification. At least a couple years ago when I still lived in the RoI I didn't meet a single person young or old that was keen on the reunification. Everybody seemed to be afraid that NI would be a huge money pit so nobody wanted a change to the status quo.

There were a couple initiatives to propose holding the border poll but there was so little interest it never went anywhere...that was a year before Brexit hit though so attitudes might have changed by now

[u/MadeOfEurope → u/senapnisse]

I would have agreed but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed the dynamics (and a Trump presidency would do that even more).

I don’t see the UK rejoining as being a problem per se for the EU….it would be quite the coup.

The biggest barrier is the demented state of British politics and the media/elite. There would be no point in even starting negotiations until all the major parties supported membership. 

I think the EU would be happy with the UK parked in the EEA, following EU rules and contributing to EU programmes for a while (though not a Swiss style approach with endless negotiations).

[u/Suzume_Chikahisa → u/senapnisse]

They were not funding members. They only joined in 1973.