After the Brexit referendum in 2016, Nigel Farage predicted that the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Italy would also leave. The data tells a very different story. Here’s how favourability towards the EU changed from 2016 to 2025: 🇳🇱 Netherlands - from 72% to 81% 🇩🇰 Denmark - from 62% to 85% 🇸🇪 Sweden - from 64% to 85% 🇦🇹 Austria - 37% to 51% 🇮🇹 Italy - 33% to 52% Each of the countries Farage identified in 2016 has instead become more pro European Union. And as of October 2026, 10 countries are in the EU enlargement process: 🇦🇱Albania, 🇧🇦Bosnia and Herzegovina, 🇬🇪Georgia, 🇽🇰Kosovo, 🇲🇩Moldova, 🇲🇪Montenegro, 🇲🇵North Macedonia, 🇷🇸Serbia, 🇹🇷Türkiye and 🇺🇦Ukraine. My view: After Andy Burnham's speech on the possibility of the UK rejoing the EU, Brexiters are having a meltdown claiming membership costs too much, we are better off outside the EU, etc. The simple questions to ask is why, if these are genuine concerns, haven't the five countries Farage identified ten years ago as leaving, left? And why are 10 more countries trying to get closer to the EU? Could it be that all of these countries understand the value of closer ties between nations, the value of freedom of movement, of a single currency, or unfettered trade enriching everyone in the club, and that the benefit of being in the club far outweigh the membership fees? Brexit was sold as the answer to problems Britain had been struggling with for years: pressure on the NHS, a shortage of affordable housing, declining public services and communities that felt neglected. Immigration was often blamed. But many of those problems were the result of government policy: years of austerity, cuts to councils, too few council homes, weak infrastructure investment, the erosion of NHS dentistry and repeated failures to expand services alongside population growth. The frustrations were real. The diagnosis was often wrong. Leaving the EU did not fix those problems. It added trade barriers and economic costs. The OBR continues to estimate that Brexit will leave UK long-run productivity around 4% lower than it otherwise would have been. That matters because stronger growth means a larger tax base and more money available for housing, healthcare, councils, transport and public services. Rejoining the EU would not magically repair Britain, but closer economic integration would remove barriers and strengthen the economy. We would still need better government choices — but we would have more resources with which to make them. The problems that helped cause Brexit were largely problems of domestic policy. Blaming immigrants distracted from that. Fixing them means reversing the bad policy choices that created them in the first place. Btw that's Nathan Gill standing behind Nigel Farage. Long-time friend of Farage who is now sitting in jail for pushing narratives favourable to Russia over Ukraine while questioning Ukraine’s democratic credentials and suitability for closer EU integration.

I don't know what Associate Membership of the European Union is but I'm super excited for Canada 🇨🇦🇪🇺🥳 Then I remember how every PM since Cameron: May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Starmer, all of them exploited Brexit to become PM. They put their careers ahead of the nation. Sad.

According to Nigel Farage, Iceland being in the EU Single Market, having free movement of people and belonging to Schengen is perfectly compatible with national independence. I look forward to him endorsing the same independence for the UK: back in the Single Market, with free movement and Schengen.