Brexit Unleashed, a festival of the most consistently wrong people in Britain

It’s a fallow year at Worthy Farm, Somerset, which means there’s no Glastonbury Festival this summer. But if you’re looking for a replacement – roll up, roll up, step right this way! The greatest show on Earth is coming right to the centre of London Town!

Brexit Unleashed – Seizing the Opportunities is a one-day festival “at a premier Westminster venue to be notified” taking place next month. Organised by the Freedom Association – a collective of right wing crackpots, gadflies and general oddballs established in 1975 by, among others, Norris McWhirter, who used to present Record Breakers – the day is intended both as a celebration of Britain’s decision to shoot itself point-blank in the foot and a discussion of how to continue doing so.

“Brexit Unleashed – Seizing the Opportunities will 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,” cheers the announcement.

And what a VIP line-up! The list of speakers is a virtual who’s 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’s a soaraway success despite all available tangible evidence to the contrary.

There’s Daniel Hannan, the Conservative peer and so-called Brain of Brexit, who infamously penned an article two days before the Brexit referendum headlined “What Britain looks like after Brexit”, painting a picture of the UK in June 2025.

In it “fireworks stream through the summer sky” to mark Independence Day, public finances are reinvigorated with the UK the region’s 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.

Eagle-eyed readers may have spotted that literally none of these things have happened. Not that it matters – 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.

Then there’s 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 “great success”, predicting long-term economic prosperity and improved trade (just not when).

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“Of 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,” he told LBC just this year. “The disappointment for me and other Brexiteers is we haven’t had governments bold enough yet to use those freedoms in a way which would promote growth much more quickly.” Like the Communists always argue, it just hasn’t been done properly yet.

Joining them will be Camilla Tominey, the GB News presenter and – it says here – “journalist” who proved her incredible skills of clairvoyance when she wrote a piece for the Daily Telegraph headlined “Whisper it, but Rishi Sunak is making an extraordinary comeback” just a month before the then PM agonisingly slipped to the single worst electoral defeat in his party’s history.

“With Starmer floundering, Farage flailing and Ed Davey acting a fool, a Tory revival is now on the cards,” she reassured nervy Telegraph readers. “Sure, this is a short campaign, but we’ve seen big surprises in recent years… the Tories are having a much better campaign than Labour.”

There’s also veteran Tory Bill Cash, but we covered him last week, and the year 2026 does not need two articles about Bill Cash.

Headlining Brexit Unleashed’s 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 – the former whisky peddler David “Frosty” Frost!

“Yes, Brexit is working,” the pharaoh of falsehoods has said. “We 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.

“The 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.” Right you are, Frosty!

There will be more – the Freedom Association tantalisingly says that “major party leaders” 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?

But frankly, if the above line-up doesn’t have you salivating, what’s up? It’s the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Kraftwerk and Public Enemy of wrongness, all on the same bill. And all for just £30! See you down the moshpit.