Commentary
Rejoining the European Union is again a live topic in the United Kingdom, but the hurdles are daunting, says Matthew Brooker for Bloomberg Opinion.
Rejoining the European Union is again a live topic of UK debate, a decade after Britain voted to leave. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes/File Photo
17 Jun 2026 05:59AM
LONDON: Rejoining the European Union is again a live topic of UK debate, a decade after Britain voted to leave. Reversing Brexit would be a mistake. That’s not because the decision to leave was correct; at this point, it’s indisputable that withdrawal damaged the economy, as well as doing obvious harm to the UK’s diplomatic relationships and global influence. Neither is it because of the practical objections to going back in, though these are substantial. The real reason is because Brexit was, at its heart, an identity crisis that remains unresolved.Cards on the table. I wouldn’t have voted for Brexit, had I been in the UK at the time. Watching from afar in Hong Kong, where I lived during the referendum and through the UK’s formal departure, it seemed like a delusional project driven by magical thinking and a curious animus toward the EU’s rulemaking and (apparently lavishly remunerated) bureaucrats.Regulations governing the shape of cucumbers and the definition of jam may be irritating and intrusive but they are also trivial. This seemed a little like leaving the biggest and best-equipped club in the neighborhood because you don’t like the way management repainted the lobby.
