I agree that the EU needs reform but do the noises from Brussels suggest they see the need for reform?

Neither Tusk nor Juncker seems particularly keen on conciliation.

No deal is better than a bad deal. When the exports from Wolfsburg and Munich start dropping, they will change their tune.

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

Lloyds and AIG are moving numbers in the teens to Europe. The underwriting will still be done in London.

London is still the centre of the Worlds insurance industry and around 15% of income is coming from Europe. More lucrative endeavours are in building business with the developing world economies.

"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

Predicted by many a long while ago, regardless of Brexit.

Buy Litecoin.

Attlee was against the Common Market.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Clement Attlee on the Common Market:
our geographical position put us in the centre of markets. That was one of the great strengths of our position. We did not have to look merely into Europe; we could look outside. We had our relationships with the Colonies overseas, later the Dominions; with the United States; with all continents, just because we were not tied up with the Continent of Europe. Now we are to be tied ... It is entirely different from anything we have had before. We are to become part of a larger whole, an appendage to Europe ... historically, that has not been our position. We may have been at the centre of markets, but we have not been in one market and out of the others. We have had to fight against hostile tariffs; we have had to keep our end up. We have never put ourselves into a position in which we were inside a ring-fence with a number of Continental Powers. Make no mistake: it is an entire change.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Is that it? Aren't you going to accuse Clem of being a right wing xenophobe?

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

He also said:
When we come to the political point, I confess I feel gravely disturbed. We are allying ourselves with six nations of Europe; it may be more, but six at present. Four of those we rescued only twenty years or so ago from domination by the other two. Now we go cap in hand to the people whom we thought we beat in war. I am all for having agreements with everybody. I am all for getting on in the world with countries very differently organised to ourselves, capitalist countries, even Communist countries; but I am rather doubtful about these present proposals...It does not seem to me to be a very good tie-up for us; and if we are to go in irrevocably and tie ourselves up with other States, I think it is an extremely doubtful proposition for Britain. I think the political dangers are very great. Once you are in there, it is quite different from being in an organisation like NATO, which is a defence organisation directed against specific perils. It is a general link-up with Europe.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Thatcher would have campaigned for Leave of course.
My point is that when the various arguments against being in the EU are aired, the left accuses those making the arguments as xenophobic, racist, right wingers.
When the best prime minister of the 20th century and the best leader the Labour party is likely to ever have, makes exactly the same arguments, there is just embarrassed silence from what passes as the left these days. Similar to when Tony Benn's firm opposition to EU membership is mentioned.

Attlee in a speech in the House of Lords on the British application to join the Common Market (8 November 1962).
We are told that we have to accept the Treaty of Rome. I have read the Treaty of Rome pretty carefully, and it expresses an outlook entirely different from our own. It may be that I am insular, but I value our Parliamentary outlook, an outlook which has extended throughout the Commonwealth. That is not the same position that holds on the Continent of Europe. No one of these principal countries in the Common Market has been very successful in running Parliamentary institutions: Germany, hardly any experience; Italy, very little; France, a swing between a dictatorship and more or less anarchic Parliament, and not very successfully. As I read the Treaty of Rome, the whole position means that we shall enter a federation which is composed in an entirely different way. I do not say it is the wrong way. But it is not our way. In this set-up it is the official who really puts up all the proposals; the whole of the planning is done by officials. It seems to me that the Ministers come in at a later stage—and if there is anything like a Federal Parliament, at a later stage still. I do not think that that is the way this country has developed, or wishes to develop. I am all for working in with our Continental friends. I was one of those who worked to build up NATO; I have worked for European integration. But that is a very different thing from bringing us into a close association which, I may say, is not one for defence, or even just for foreign policy. The fact is that if the designs behind the Common Market are carried out, we are bound to be affected in every phase of our national life. There would be no national planning, except under the guidance of Continental planning—we shall not be able to deal with our own problems; we shall not be able to build up the country in the way we want to do, so far as I can see. I think we shall be subject to overall control and planning by others. That is my objection.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

I do laud his influence on building a welfare state, his model worked well. However, there would have been a welfare state if the Conservatives had won in 1945, their manifesto said: "One of our most important tasks will be to pass into law and bring into action as soon as we can a nation-wide and compulsory scheme of National Insurance based on the plan announced by the Government of all Parties in 1944." and "The health services of the country will be made available to all citizens. Everyone will contribute to the cost, and no one will be denied the attention, the treatment or the appliances he requires because he cannot afford them.
We propose to create a comprehensive health service covering the whole range of medical treatment from the general practitioner to the specialist, and from the hospital to convalescence and rehabilitation; and to introduce legislation for this purpose in the new Parliament."

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

As you no doubt consider yourself a 'progressive', I would have thought gay marriage brought in by the Tory Cameron was right up your street?
Thatcher would certainly have campaigned for Leave.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]