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AIBU?

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Original poster

“Everybody thought the EU was about people coming into the country … no-one told of us the benefits”.

389 replies

MrsMurphyIWish · 18/02/2026 07:00

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2136jnjx1o

And the response to this very now deprived community is to vote Reform.

“Brexit has removed a key source of funding, which the area desperately needs. County Durham received £154m of EU funding between 2014 and 2020, about £22m a year. Since the UK left the European Union, it receives about half that amount, £12m annually, under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.”

The story is sad (and typical of deprived areas - I know, I live in one). Towns feeling forgotten and never recovering from closed industry but why can they not see history will repeat itself?

A row of red-brick houses with almost every window and door boarded up

Inside Horden, the County Durham town failed by politics

In Horden, County Durham, Westminster slogans have long been left unmet as the population has plummeted.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2136jnjx1o

OP posts:
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6
MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 18/02/2026 07:25

It is obviously not true to say that people weren't warned about what they would stand to lose through Brexit. Those warnings were commonly dismissed as Project Fear at the time. Turns out that they'd have been right to be fearful. No surprises there.

What is surprising is that they're willing to put their faith in Farage again, even after he sold them a bucket full of lies during the referendum campaign.

I had huge sympathy for these communities previously, but my sympathy starts to wane when they don't learn from their mistakes. People might be forgiven for being taken in by Farage once, but twice? I'm starting to feel like those who vote him in will deserve their fate.

ilovesooty · 18/02/2026 07:23

Theolittle · 18/02/2026 07:13

Very sad but I’m sure it’ll be amazing to see what reform do with the area. Go Nigel!

🤣

Original poster
MrsMurphyIWish · 18/02/2026 07:17

Femalemachinest · 18/02/2026 07:05

Exactly. All this brexit stiff is getting a bit old now. The whole world went into decline for version reasons but people only see what they want

Show quote history

Maybe I should have written in the OP that this isn’t really a Brexit debate - more history repeating itself with a deprived community seeing a “saviour” to their derivation and I don’t think that is Farage.

OP posts:
Cnidarian · 18/02/2026 07:16

From the article in case people haven't got that far "Brexit has removed a key source of funding, which the area desperately needs. County Durham received £154m of EU funding between 2014 and 2020, about £22m a year. Since the UK left the European Union, it receives about half that amount, £12m annually, under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund."

StandFirm · 18/02/2026 07:14

Femalemachinest · 18/02/2026 07:05

Exactly. All this brexit stiff is getting a bit old now. The whole world went into decline for version reasons but people only see what they want

Show quote history

It's not getting old. Brexit is a slow poison, or like a parasitic weed that slowly chokes a tree. We're only a few years in and the effects are now being properly felt. Brexit was only ever going to cause new issues and compound existing problems. Who'd need that? But maybe you're right that debating the past referendum is pointless. This is now about how we can access those funds again and regain the fantastic deal that our enemies were dying to see us cast aside. They all cracked open the bubbly when that happened.

Theolittle · 18/02/2026 07:13

Very sad but I’m sure it’ll be amazing to see what reform do with the area. Go Nigel!

Octavia64 · 18/02/2026 07:11

The EU gets the projects it funds where possible to put this prominently on billboards etc. pre Brexit you used to see them across the U.K. - this project EU funded.

i was recently in the Canaries and some of their buses are EU funded - and it’s literally painted on the bus.

a lie can be round the world while the truth is still getting it’s boots on.

AreYouSureAskedNaomi · 18/02/2026 07:09

It's more "I only listen to certain kinds of people and will ignore anything anyone else tells me because I don't trust them for reasons xyz"

OnlyMabelInTheBuilding · 18/02/2026 07:09

Should these towns just be funded indefinitely?

Original poster
MrsMurphyIWish · 18/02/2026 07:08

Absolutely and time can not be reversed. However it’s the same ideology. In this community Brexit was seen as a solution to their deprivation, now Reform is and these decisions are being made based on social media slogans and not research.

OP posts:
dudsville · 18/02/2026 07:07

I actually do recall the funding loss being discussed widely. Just saying.

AreYouSureAskedNaomi · 18/02/2026 07:06

"No one told us of the benefits"
That's not true, is it?

Femalemachinest · 18/02/2026 07:05

ThatThisThatYou · 18/02/2026 07:02

Do you not think the UK governments of the past 30 years have a part to play in the decline or is it all the fault of Brexit?

Exactly. All this brexit stiff is getting a bit old now. The whole world went into decline for version reasons but people only see what they want

ThatThisThatYou · 18/02/2026 07:02

Do you not think the UK governments of the past 30 years have a part to play in the decline or is it all the fault of Brexit?