By far the best way to reset relationships between the EU and the UK would be for Keir Starmer to publicly acknowledge that Brexit was a disaster at every level and announce his intention to stage a second referendum on the issue.
The appropriate date for the new poll would be on June 23 2026, exactly a decade after the last one, and all the indications are that a significant majority of UK citizens would be in favour of rejoining the EU.
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Opinion surveys suggest that almost twice as many people believe that the wrong decision was taken in 2016 as those who remain satisfied with Brexit, and many of the arguments which then influenced the narrow success for the Vote Leave side have been comprehensively demonstrated to be entirely false.
Starmer was never likely to have the courage to act decisively and seek a mandate for a return to EU membership, so instead we have been left with much more vague efforts to minimise the damage caused by Brexit.
There are many positive aspects to the agreement which Starmer finalised earlier this week, and it is important to build on the progress which has been made, but the wider debate is certainly not over.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin was entitled to strongly welcome the initiative, which is designed to result in greater alignment between the UK and the EU on food standards as well as improving arrangements for travellers among a range of other measures.
There should be clear benefits for the all-Ireland economy, with barriers on trade removed and better understandings created over key areas for ordinary people on both sides of the border.
The DUP leader Gavin Robinson referred to advances made “in superficial terms” but insisted that it was still too early provide a definitive assessment of the overall deal.
This could be as close as the DUP gets to admitting that that its support for Brexit in 2016 was a catastrophic error of judgment, which had appalling consequences for all sections of society and may come to be regarded as the greatest blunder by unionism in living memory.
It has taken far too long for the links between the UK and the EU to be properly overhauled, but most of the proposals outlined by Starmer represent a victory for common sense.
The DUP’s support for Brexit was a catastrophic error of judgment, which had appalling consequences for all sections of society
They were a firm step in the right direction at a time when the growing tensions and conflicts elsewhere are causing enormous concern on an international basis.
As nations across Europe need to be as closely aligned as possible, sweeping away the confused thinking and malicious falsehoods which resulted in Brexit is more important than ever.
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