Martin Wolf’s main thrust is largely correct but for key reasons not articulated in his article (“Britain won’t rejoin the EU for decades — if ever”, Opinion, December 11). The intellectual reasons for not rejoining the “new EU” are well rehearsed, by Wolf and others, including no rebates, a commitment to combine the euro, the need to increasingly share debt and incorporate with EU institutions ever more tightly.
The relationship between the EU and the UK was never an emotional attachment — this was evident in more than 45 years of EU membership.
Certainly, post-Brexit, it’s hard to discern any burning desire in the UK to foster an emotional attachment or closer identity with the EU. At a transactional, trade level, including the Windsor framework, the rejoining of Horizon along with EU compromises on EV car tariffs, we can still be odd bedfellows, albeit with each of us in our own bed.
John M Jones
London N19, UK
