Britain's place in the world

 It is becoming increasingly apparent, to me anyway, that Britain's influence on world affairs is becoming weaker. And becoming weaker from a low starting point. The US just pays "lip service" to the once heralded special relationship. Britain has very little influence over events connected to the Ukraine and Russian war or events in the Middle East. Russia and Israel just ignore the opinions of Britain. The Ukraine and Russian war will be settled on terms dictated by the US and Russia. It may seem unjust to Ukraine's European partners but Ukraine will almost certainly have to give up the Crimea and large parts of the Donbas if it wants to achieve a ceasefire. Britain and the EU are simply too weak economically, diplomatically and militarily to impose any sort of just settlement in favour Ukraine.

It is now more and more important that Britain re-establishes close relations with the EU to ensure Europe's common security going forward. The US is no longer willing to bankroll Europe from an economic and military point of view. Europe will have to pay more, much more, to finance Nato and if it does not its influence will recede further. However, if we pay more we should expect to have a greater influence on events and outcomes for European security.

Britain needs to "wise up" and it needs to negotiate a security and defence pact with the EU and a pact to negotiate a real influence in foreign affairs..Britain could make a strong contribution to this from a military and diplomatic point of view.

The" Brexit worm" is turning in Britain and the public and it's political representatives are beginning to realise that Brexit was not good for Britain, it made Britain economically and diplomatically weaker. It also weakened the EU  but to a lesser extent.

Britain will need to negotiate  better trade ties with the EU by at least joining an associate customs union; perhaps something akin to the original common market. This would involve a trade off by allowing freedom of movement of labour as well as capital, services and goods, all of  which we had when we first joined in EC in 1973. This could mean that we would have to lower the number of work permits that we offer to non-EU nationals to control immigration - if the populace insists upon this. 

Britain should improve its case for joining in a trade association with the EU by proposing and contributing to a number of projects that would improve the economic prospects for all European citizens.

The warnings from the US are clear - we must fend for ourselves much better; to achieve this Britain must become a good European partner again. There is no other direction for us to turn, so let's start the process of really resetting our relations with the EU by commissioning an objective report on how we can do this, and ask the EU to make a contribution to the process. This must be done quickly before it is too late to stop our nation from falling into more serious decline.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpvd01g2kwwo