While most other dailies were triumphalist and others despondent over the formal break with the EU, the i addressed the practical implications of the schism. What are the next steps to make it work for all the people of the UK, not just the financial speculators who funded the successful Leave campaigns and drove the Europhiles from the Conservative party?
Remainers on social media seem to be drawing too much comfort from messages from leading friends in the EU, like Guy Verhofstadt, Donald Tusk, Emanuel Macron and Jan Timmermans. We have not heard from opponents and it should be noted that Tusk and Macron do not reflect the general feeling in Poland and France respectively. It requires only one nation to veto our re-entry and we have upset too many nations in the EU.
Do not misunderstand. If a real opportunity to rejoin the EU offered itself, I would be in like a shot. But any government which did so must take the majority of the British people with it, and it is clear from the December general election result - not to mention the evidence on social media - that their attitude is hardening. Therefore it seems sensible not to invest too much time in attempting to turn the clock back but rather to ensure that things do not get worse. In particular, our resistance to a failure to reach a free trade agreement with the EU must be clear and unremitting.
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