[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

The legal sector employs 350,000 people in the UK so that's not peanuts by any stretch of the imagination. But as you say, all the other peanuts like small companies ending exporting or fishermen throwing in the towel all add up.

The main point of my post was however to illustrate a lever the EU has on us which is not immediately apparent to most people. There will doubtless be other levers as well.

I've quoted below an extract from your ealier post and highlighted a portion.

...The UK dropped out of the treaty as a consequence of Brexit, and applied to rejoin in April 2020. Yet, while the non-EU signatory states (Iceland, Norway and Switzerland) agreed to its re-admission, to date the European Commission has recommended that the EU deny this request, and said that the bloc was "not in a position" to give its consent to UK accession.

..."It's politically uncomfortable for Johnson that the EU is starting to react to what it sees as our bad behavior," says Anand Menon, professor of international politics at King's College London. "Lots of Brexiteers said from the start of the Brexit process that London taking a hard-line stance wouldn't result in retaliation from Brussels. This is one of the first examples where we are being damaged internationally and the EU holds the keys, and it gives us an idea of how much they think our reputation has changed," he adds.

There is actually no reason why Brussels should be so nasty as to refuse a perfectly reasonable request. The commentator, Menon, ascribes this to the UK's "bad behaviour". Maybe he got that from an EU source - or it's his own opinion which leaves things somewhat in the air.

I don't doubt that the EU holds the key to the UK's re-admission to the legal convention - but I would expect them to clearly state what it would take from the UK to get this sorted.