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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Jonathan Freedland

Our European neighbours now look at post-Brexit Britain and say simply: nein, danke

People relax on a beach next to Felixtowe port, Suffolk.
‘The evidence of Brexit as a problem-creator is all around.’ A beach next to Felixtowe port, Suffolk. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

We’re good Europeans at last. Nearly seven years after we voted to leave, Britons are finally doing their bit for the European Union. Diligently and with dogged devotion to duty, we are strengthening the ties that bind the 27 remaining nations of the EU – though not quite in the way anyone would have wanted.

Take a look at the Europe-wide survey, published yesterday , which showed that support for leaving the EU has tanked everywhere since 2016. In every EU member state where data was available, from Finland to the Netherlands, Portugal to Hungary, pro-leave sentiment has fallen through the floor. Even Europe’s most hardcore anti-EU parties have abandoned the goal of actually leaving the EU – no more talk of Frexit or Italexit – aiming instead merely to reform the union from within.

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