Following what has been widely reported as the most impressive speech made by a British Prime Minister this century, Andy Burnham has seen a positive and immediate response to reopening the Brexit debate by both France and Spain.

Chapter 1: A shift in the conversation

For 10 years, Britain has been standing outside the European House, insisting that we're perfectly comfortable in the rain. We've been peering through the windows, complaining about the food, criticizing the furniture, occasionally shouting through the letter box. And now from Madrid, come two rather extraordinary words. Welcome back.

Emanuel Macron, president of France, said them in English. And beside him stood Pedro Sanchez, prime minister of Spain, whose message was warmer as still, Spain, he said, would open its arms to a brotherly people. After a decade in which Brexit seemed to have turned Britain's relationship with Europe into one long, exhausting family divorce, suddenly somebody has put the kettle on. It matters. Not because Britain is rejoining the European Union tomorrow. We're not. Not because Brussels has suddenly offered us the old membership terms back. It is not. But because something fundamental has changed [snorts] in the political vocabulary of course uh should um Marine Le Pen get into power, should AF um FD be in power, this may all change anyway.

Chapter 2: Breaking the Brexit taboo

But Andy Burnham has broken the great British Brexit taboo.

A British prime minister has publicly acknowledged what millions of people have been thinking for years.

Perhaps Brexit did us more harm than good. and perhaps the future relationship between Britain and Europe ought to be reconsidered. Burnham has laid out a spectrum of possibilities. The status quo, the customs union, the single market, or in his wonderfully understated phrase, Britain might go all the way. In other words, rejoin. Reuters reports that Bernham is proposing a serious examination of these alternatives rather than an immediate referendum. Recent polling also records a substantial body of public support for Macron's response was fascinating. Come back. And there's also almost something theatrical about it. For years, Britain was told that Europe would punish us, humiliate us, resent us, trap us. And yet, here was the president of France sounding less like an embittered former spouse and more like somebody holding the door open.

Chapter 3: The costs of leaving

And Sanchez went further. Brexit, he said, had been a huge loss both for Britain and the European project. Andthat phrase matters because Brexit was not merely about about Britain doing something to Europe. Britain also removed something from Europe. A major military power, a nuclear power, one of Europe's largest economies, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, a country with formidable universities, institutional financial institutions, diplomatic networks, and cultural influence. Macron even remarked that the British have been useful in pushing Europe towards simplification. That is almost enough to make an old British europile choke on the cross. The French misses. Who knew? But before we start dusting off the European flags and humming Beethoven's ninth, there is an important warning. Macron also said something else. Britain would not get to choose whichever parts of European integration suited us. And here we reach the next the real argument. The old British relationship with Europe is gone. And Britain once possessed an extraordinary collection of privileges.

Chapter 4: The challenge of returning

We remained outside the euro. We remained outside the Shenhen. We proposed Margaret Thatcher's Wepossessed Margaret Thatcher's budget rebate. I know the price of my sheep. We accumulated optouts and special arrangements. We were simultaneously inside the club and permanently arguing with the management. any future application would begin from a different position. The European Union has 27 members and accession is governed by rules and regulations and Britain would have to persuade those members that it was returning with durable political consent rather than beginning another cycle of membership rebellion and departure and that is why Brussels is more cautious than Paris or Madrid. The European Commission says it is open to considering whatever options London proposes. Translation: Lovely music. Now show us the score. There are already practical arguments waiting. Youth mobility, food and agricultural standards, carbon market alignment, industrial policy, migration, cooperation, trade security. The UK and EU were already discussing many of these subjects before Burnham uttered the word rejoining. His meeting with Ursula Vanderlayan in New York on the 22nd of September covered EU UK relations, migration, security threats, Ukraine and unfair international competition. And that brings me to the deeper point. The world of 2026 is not the world of 2016.

Chapter 5: Sovereignty versus power

Look at what Macron Sanchez were discussing alongside Britain, China, industrial competition, European manufacturing, technology transfer, economic security. Macron's argument was brutally simple. Divided European countries have far less leverage when confronting unfair competition from enormous economic powers. And that is precisely where Brexit now collides with the realities of scale. Britain has sovereignty. France has sovereignty. Spain has sovereignty. Germany has sovereignty. But sovereignty and power are not identical. A country possesses sovereignty when it has the legal authority to make a decision. It possesses power when other countries have reason to care about that decision.

And that distinction was too often missing from the Brexit debate. The question was framed as who makes the rules. The harder question was how much influence does Britain possess over the rules governing the markets upon which British prosperity depends. Reuters analysis this week points to precisely that dilemma. Britain outside the EU still faces pressure to align with European industrial and trade policies because geography and economic integration did not disappear when Britain left the institutions we left the room. The room did not disappear and perhaps that is why this moment feels different.

Chapter 6: Seeking a practical future

The old Brexit debate wasemotional, tribal and frequently poisonous. Leave meant patriot, remain when meant traitor, or from the opposite trench, leave meant idiot, and remain meant enlightened cosmopolitan. Both caricaturures poisoned serious discussion. 10 years later, Britain has the opportunity to ask a calmer question. What arrangement works? Not what validates 2016. Not what humiliates one side. Not what vindicates another.

What works?

Customs Union, single market, a Canadian style associated arrangement, full membership. Each carries benefits, obligations, and political costs. They those deserve examination rather than slogans. Bernham has not reversed Brexit. He's done something subtler.

He's made reconsideration discussible.

That alone represents a significant change. And perhaps the most intriguing feature of the last 48 hours has been the response from across the channel. No triumphalism from Madrid. No demand for Britain to crawl across the floor of of of um wearing wearing sackcloth. Instead, welcome back. Come back. Open arms. One should not mistake diplomatic warmth for negotiating generosity.

France and Spain are two member states, not the European Union itself. Any gesture, any genuine British return would involve a long institutional and political process. The commission's response has been considerably more restrained. But doors matter, language matters, possibilities matter, and Brexit once presented itself as a permanent historical settlement. History rarely behaved so obediently. Britain joined Europe. Britain argued with Europe. Britain left Europe and now Britain's begun talking seriously about Europe again. Perhaps we are witnessing no more than the first tentative conversation. Perhaps Britain ultimately chooses a customs union, a single market relationship or another arrangement rather than membership. Perhaps public opinion changes. Again, those are questions for voters and for years of political argument. But something has shifted and after 10 years of Britain asking Europe to move further away, a British prime minister has begun asking where the road back might lead. And from Madrid came an answer which would have sounded politically impossible only a short time ago. The door is not locked.

The lights are still on. [snorts] And somebody inside has called out, "Come back".

Biggest mistake Britain ever made.
Not too late to fix things.

This must be one of the best political cartoons of the year: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/oct/01/ben-jennings-andy-burnham-suggestion-brexit-question-revisited-cartoon

The goofy inflatable unicorn is just priceless.😁

But there are so many other choice details if one looks hard, and the White Cliffs of Dover in the background. The only thing missing is a Spitfire. And Bozo.

There are too many interconnections between Britain and continental Europe; more than with North America or Australia.
The days of Empire and Island nation are long gone.

Like a family, there is no escape, appreciate what they offer and you'll get used to it.

15 hours ago, MigL said:

Biggest mistake Britain ever made.
Not too late to fix things.

Let's settle for biggest mistake in recent times, perhaps? Britain has quite a bit of history, after all...