But the idea is back in play as Andy Burnham looks for ways to reverse a decade of economic stagnation. As the prime minister dared to unlock the door to a Brussels reunion, you could hear Ode to Joy burst out from all remainers. But the prospect of a re-run of the most self-destructive vote in our history is dismaying.
Remember that morning a decade ago. First came Sunderland’s 12.20am result, a 61.3% vote to leave, but there was still hope for remainers … until the BBC’s 4.40am verdict that leave had won. In that second a great rift tore across the country.
Remainers, dubbed remoaners, never recovered. UK politics became a circus: we who paraded as the west’s strong and stable “mother of parliaments” ran wildly through seven prime ministers in 10 years. Both Labour and Tory parties were wrecked by the most shattering event of our political lifetime.
It is a wound neither has dared to reopen. Only now Burnham has finally broken the spell of Brexit silence, aiming to rejoin, while the Tories will stay in the wilderness until they repent the Brexit disaster they inflicted on the country. As Burnham sets out to explore all the options, outriders scout the way back in.
Making the strong case for full EU membership, IPPR, the thinktank closest to Labour, has published a weighty report this week on how it can happen and why it must: we need it for prosperity, security and democracy. It has left us dangerously alone and friendless in a world of great power blocs. Our once reliable ally, the US, is never to be fully trusted again now we know what its people are capable of voting for.
And so the warmth of familiar democracies across the Channel looks welcoming (at least for now). Make this bid to rejoin about who we are, bonding with where we belong, emotionally and historically. We have discovered “sovereignty” is a mirage: every treaty and trade deal requires sharing it with allies.
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