It\u2019s a fallow year at Worthy Farm, Somerset, which means there\u2019s no Glastonbury Festival this summer. But if you\u2019re looking for a replacement \u2013 roll up, roll up, step right this way! The greatest show on Earth is coming right to the centre of London Town!<\/p>\n
Brexit Unleashed \u2013 Seizing the Opportunities\u00a0is a one-day festival \u201cat a premier Westminster venue to be notified\u201d taking place next month. Organised by the Freedom Association \u2013 a collective of right wing crackpots, gadflies and general oddballs established in 1975 by, among others, Norris McWhirter, who used to present\u00a0Record Breakers\u00a0\u2013 the day is intended both as a celebration of Britain\u2019s decision to shoot itself point-blank in the foot and a discussion of how to continue doing so.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrexit Unleashed \u2013 Seizing the Opportunities\u00a0will bring together a VIP line-up of leading political figures, economists, commentators, and campaigners to examine how Britain can make the most of its independence and ensure the promise of Brexit is fully realised,\u201d cheers the announcement.<\/p>\n
And what a VIP line-up! The list of speakers is a virtual who\u2019s who of people who have been wrong about everything, from those who insisted that Brexit would be the doorway to a sun-kissed nirvana, to the cheerleaders of Singapore-on-Thames and those who continue to insist it\u2019s a soaraway success despite all available tangible evidence to the contrary.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s Daniel Hannan, the Conservative peer and so-called Brain of Brexit, who infamously penned an article two days before the Brexit referendum headlined \u201cWhat Britain looks like after Brexit\u201d, painting a picture of the UK in June 2025.<\/p>\n
In it \u201cfireworks stream through the summer sky\u201d to mark Independence Day, public finances are reinvigorated with the UK the region\u2019s foremost knowledge-based economy, trade terms with the EU had been swiftly agreed, fuel bills have tumbled and, witnessing the invigorating effects of leaving the bloc, Denmark, Ireland and the Netherlands swiftly followed us out.<\/p>\n
Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that literally none of these things have happened. Not that it matters \u2013 in February 2021, partly as a reward for churning out ludicrous guff like this, the 49-year-old Daniel Hannan was given a place for life in the House of Lords, from where he continues to be wrong about everything.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s John Redwood, another Tory peer whose soothsaying has proved a little skew-whiff. The anthem-mangling former Wales secretary still claims that Brexit is a \u201cgreat success\u201d, predicting long-term economic prosperity and improved trade (just not when).<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course Brexit overall is a great success because it gives us the opportunity to change policies and improve the prospects for our country, and it restores self-government,\u201d he told LBC just this year. \u201cThe disappointment for me and other Brexiteers is we haven\u2019t had governments bold enough yet to use those freedoms in a way which would promote growth much more quickly.\u201d Like the Communists always argue, it just hasn\u2019t been done\u00a0properly\u00a0yet.<\/p>\n
Joining them will be Camilla Tominey, the GB News presenter and \u2013 it says here \u2013 \u201cjournalist\u201d who proved her incredible skills of clairvoyance when she wrote a piece for the\u00a0Daily Telegraph\u00a0headlined \u201cWhisper it, but Rishi Sunak is making an extraordinary comeback\u201d just a month before the then PM agonisingly slipped to the single worst electoral defeat in his party\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith Starmer floundering, Farage flailing and Ed Davey acting a fool, a Tory revival is now on the cards,\u201d she reassured nervy\u00a0Telegraph\u00a0readers. \u201cSure, this is a short campaign, but we\u2019ve seen big surprises in recent years\u2026 the Tories are having a much better campaign than Labour.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also veteran Tory Bill Cash, but we covered him last week, and the year 2026 does not need two articles about Bill Cash.<\/p>\n
Headlining\u00a0Brexit Unleashed\u2019s equivalent of the Pyramid Stage is the undisputed King of the Wrong, the man who has never knowingly been correct and the first and only cabinet minister in history to storm out of government in protest at a deal he himself negotiated and signed \u2013 the former whisky peddler David \u201cFrosty\u201d Frost!<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Brexit is working,\u201d the pharaoh of falsehoods has said. \u201cWe have no cause for regrets about the decision the country has taken and the solutions to the remaining problems are not to be found in going backwards, but in completing the process and following through on its logic.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe view that Brexit is hitting us from an economic and trade perspective is generated by those with an axe to grind and cannot be supported by any objective analysis of the figures.\u201d Right you are, Frosty!<\/p>\n
There will be more \u2013 the Freedom Association tantalisingly says that \u201cmajor party leaders\u201d have been invited, although does not stipulate if they are currently in situ. Might Liz Truss herself be able to bring her unique brand of muddle-headedness along?<\/p>\n
But frankly, if the above line-up doesn\u2019t have you salivating, what\u2019s up? It\u2019s the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kraftwerk and Public Enemy of wrongness, all on the same bill. And all for just \u00a330! See you down the moshpit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a fallow year at Worthy Farm, Somerset, which means there\u2019s no Glastonbury Festival this summer. But if…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-913982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brexit","8":"tag-brexit","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-european","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116456125125637022","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}