Unbound Briefing Room – W/C 10 August 2026

Brexit has been far better for Britain than you might think

Robert Tombs, a member of Britain Unbound's Advisory Council, has a revealing and well argued article in today's Daily Telegraph that you can read here.

Firstly, it discusses what the economic performance of Germany, France and Italy would be if one of the counterfactual models that is often applied to Brexit Britain is applied to them. Read the article to learn of the rather interesting findings. Secondly, Robert reports on a study that sought to establish how much Brexit Britain will have saved in total through no longer making annual payments to the EU by 2064 – the date when our departure costs finally tail-off. The figure will probably astonish you.

Also of interest will be the announcement by the UK Government of the MHRA approval of the new weight management and Type 2 Diabetes drug Orforglipron – making it available on the UK market before anywhere else in Europe. Another example of a Brexit benefit that our MHRA can move quicker and more efficiently than the EU EMA – a benefit we would lose were we to return to EU membership or allow drug approval to be aligned with and therefore dictated by the EU.

Norway still says "nei"

Our attention has been drawn to recent polling in Norway, which shows a clear majority against EU membership, or even opening negotiations to join.

In particular, a TV2 / Verian poll found 65.9% against applying for EU membership, with just 34.1% in favour.

Elsewhere, a former Dutch Finance Minister asks "Will the Netherlands Accept Paying 12.5 Times More to the EU Than It Gets Back?".

This raises a more general point. The countries that are "queuing up" to join the EU are typically much poorer economies who would be net recipients of support from the richer ones. In contrast, the UK, like Norway and the Netherlands, would be a large net contributor, and thus better off out…

You can read more on the new cost of EU membership in our research here.

Meanwhile, there has been plenty of negative reaction to the new packaging rules being introduced by the EU, with one normally EUphile commentator describing them as "an atrocious attack on small businesses and consumers, making products more expensive, hurting small businesses and effectively destroying the single market".

The UK is, of course, perfectly capable of coming up with its own daft packaging rules and taxes (such as the EPR scheme). But at least, thanks to Brexit, we no longer have to copy every crazy regulation imposed by the EU.