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

[MrsMurphyIWish]

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?

The two are not remotely comparable - to create wealth in any country you have to make or grow something and sell it to another country, bringing fresh money into your economy.

As one example, Electrical & Musical Industries, a British firm, were the inventors of the CAT scanner, pre-eminent in electronic recording technology, the worlds biggest manufacturer of records and CDs, one of the biggest manufacturers of radio, television, light fittings, fire alarms and extinguishers etc etc - all made here at numerous factories throughout the land.

They were a good employer (I did my apprenticeship at their Hereford factory, where we made office lighting) paid good wages and made good stuff, sold worldwide.

How has that got anything to do with slavery?

Some countries paid more than others and the UK was one of the top contributors.

This was the point of the EU though, make every state stronger economically to benefit the EU as a whole and the single market which it embodied. If you look at Ireland as a case study, in 1973 when they joined they were an under developed mainly agricultural economy and were a net beneficiary of EU funding for years. Ireland is now a net contributor to the EU budget. They used their funding to strengthen their economy expand their industries and improve their infrastructure, this doesn't just benefit the Irish economy but the EU as a whole because it contributes to it becoming a stronger trading block. The EU is about strengthening all its members so they are collectively stronger, it provides access to the single market, the most affluent market in the world, and Britain lost that access overnight. On a micro level I no longer buy from many UK companies because of the excise duties you now have to pay so you look elsewhere and buy from other EU states, multiply that action by millions of consumers and the trade lost is huge.

The UK was a net contributor to the EU budget

Not 'everyone'. 😒

Wonder how Ireland can have joined the EU 20 years before it was in existence

That money was money we paid to the EU in the first place.

If those areas are now not getting that money, then it's because the UK goverment have stopped paying it because they are using it for other things which they perceive to be of higher priority.

And now the same people who told them that are telling them (again) that all the problems can be easily fixed - ‘trust me in, just in me’ style. And how they are falling for it.

Remain did a rubbish job of promoting their side, but when people say they ‘didn’t know’ how much we benefited from the EU, or that they believed the 350m lie, or any of the other reasons people say they voted to leave, I feel a bit confused. They had access to the same information we all did, could read and think and make up their mind. And ok, maybe once a snake oil salesman could trick you, we’ve all been there. But Farage is doing it again, the same lies about simple solutions to complex problems and blaming it all on immigration. And people in the shittiest towns are falling for it again. I don’t really have any sympathy any more.

Depends what you are comparing.

The are spelled differently, I grant you that.

Think people forget that it wasn't EU "funding" individual projects for our towns and cities, it was our money in the first place, they just "directed" where spending should go.
Boris did indeed lie about where this money would/did go
I cannot believe the amount of short-sighted thickos who are going to vote Farage 😱
We're a doomed

This is how I feel and hence the thread. I live in a deprived area and although my ward voted Remain and has mainly been a Labour area, it’s very close. Someone on another thread said we don’t hear much from Reform voters so it seems like they could never win but we thought the same with Brexit - people are keeping their views to themselves so I do worry that my ward could be become Reform (we now have a Reform councillor).

Ok the EEC, it evolved and changed names and powers a few times over the years but member states didn't have to rejoin every time this happened, we joined the then EEC in 1973 which is now the EU. Apologies assumed most people would understand that without the explanation needed ....

What the people of Clacton think of their "wonderful" MP old Nige when they see him in their constituency every weekend.
Hang on - he has not been there since July 2024. Oh I see. Did he say why would I want to go to that awful place?

I haven’t read the entire thread but there are so many stupid people out there still blaming Brexit. These people didn’t benefit because they were / are deprived and live in deprived areas so of course no one told them. But successive governments have had a hand in the state of the country outside of the powerhouse of London and SE of England.

If you’re poor, it’ll rarely get better. I thank my lucky stars I’m not poor and my children are dual EU citizens.

Obviously people are too Brexit obsessed to actually realize this

"We've just realised we were lied to about Brexit. Let's all vote for the bloke who told us those lies!"

FFS.

I live in Ireland and we would see signs "Road funded by EU etc" but i never saw aimilar signs in the UK. Not that they werent funded just that the EU assistance wasnt publicised.

Brexit made rich men richer and the poor poorer. Thats not to say that there arent problems in Europe.

Were the community fully informed of the advantages of the EU or were they ignored as nasty illiterate bigots?

Yes I recall a TV interviewer catching people on the way into a leisure/activity centre asking people about Brexit … Loads of people saying “the EU does nothing for us, it just takes our money and stops us funding the NHS”

The interviewer did the interview in front of a sign that literally said “This centre received £2m of funding from the European Regional Development Fund”

Hilarious. People select what facts fit their narrative - it’s human nature.

Every job I worked in since 1996 had me working in a company that displayed EU funding or integration posters. Mainly because they had enrolled in the local authorities EU funded environmental schemes.

There is none as blind as those that won't see.

That’s what happens when those who do not understand politics vote the country down the toilet. Sure - let’s allow hardcore racists with little income and an axe to grind - decide the UK’s fate. I still blame that dish-faced wanker Cameron, who thought voters wouldn’t be that pig shit thick. Hah! Think again Cameron.

It's complex, but still depressing, and very similar to this community and their ongoing support for Trump

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/02/trump-coal-country-grundy-rural-appalachia-virginia/

If they were fully informed of the benefits and chose to ignore them then they brought it on themselves.

I do think we need to highlight the truthfulness of politicians arguments more widely though. At each general election the IFS does a nice filleting of every parties manifesto pledges and calls out what’s pie in the sky (ie total bollocks) and what isn’t. This needs to be done more widely to ensure people are fully informed as to what they are voting for.

We shouldn’t have brexited but I don’t see the EU as some happy band -I mean Hungary is in the EU. How much have they come together to fight Russia. All with differing policies on immigration. French still getting in a state over fishing. Not that great

The EU was the EEC before that.

Exactly! Stuff that happened in the past matters! One of the big problems affecting the area in the article is the pits closing down - more than forty years ago. And no new economic opportunities taking their place.