Interview with Dr Steve McCabe, Associate Professor at Birmingham City University
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00:00You know, Brexit was supposed to open up all these new trade avenues to countries outside
00:06of the EU.
00:07And of course, by and large, it hasn't done so.
00:09And I think particularly of America, that was supposed to be the land of opportunity
00:14for the UK.
00:16And as I say, it has not transpired.
00:19And indeed, again, I also add and recognize that the EU as a global entity, it's the world's
00:26largest trading bloc.
00:28But its significance is somewhat lessened.
00:30The world is altering.
00:32But beyond all of that, we cannot deny that to effectively impose trade sanctions on ourselves,
00:39which is what Brexit has effectively done, and to make it more difficult to trade with
00:44the largest trading bloc on our doorstep, literally just across the sea, swim across
00:50the Channel, it was quite ludicrous.
00:54And I think in history, we'll sort of judge it as being a sort of a pretty strange decision.
00:59Why would you do this to yourselves?
01:00But hey, there were a whole lot of other emotions that sort of came into this.
01:04But the bottom line, I still come back to is that people want to believe that they have
01:08a better future for themselves here and now, and their children, the future.
01:13Recent opinion polls indicate a growing trend amongst UK citizens in favor of rejoining
01:20the European Union.
01:22The most recent poll by Omnisys suggested 60% of respondents now support rejoining the
01:30EU, perhaps reflecting increasing disillusionment with Brexit's outcomes.
01:37Keir Starmer has been, you know, I can't say in a way that he was emphatic, you know, he
01:43promised that there would not be any sort of rejoining, or indeed even sort of going
01:47to the single European market.
01:49From his perspective, it was so toxic during the campaign and the referendum when he was
01:54the Brexit secretary.
01:56So I think he doesn't want to revisit that.