The annual Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival took place in rural Dorset, over the weekend of 17-19 July 2026. As over the last two years, Dorset for Europe were there, with a stand in the ‘martyr’s marquee.’ We’re happy to report that our stand was very well attended on both Saturday and, particularly, on Sunday, when entry to the festival is free.
Other stand holders included numerous campaign platforms, like the Green Party on climate and the Labour Party group, supporting a change to the UK electoral system to proportional representation (‘PR’). These, along with many of the well-known TUC representatives, members and unions (the festival is TUC-sponsored), made for an interesting and busy couple of days.
There were many similarities with our experience last year, but some differences, as well, which seem worth noting. First, there was a lot of interest in the stand in talking about how being outside the Europe Union (EU), affects the UK and what we can do about it. Our ‘OpinionOmeter’ created interest, directing and generating discussion: we went through nearly 1000 ‘sticky dots’ in the course of the weekend!
As in previous years, people often just asked how close we were to becoming members of the EU again. This year, that discussion had intensified with folk coming forward to say, simply, that they were lied to and felt conned. In particular, some explained that they had cast their vote in good faith but then realised they had been given false promises and incorrect information. They wanted to be back in the EU, with a return of their sadly missed rights and privileges for their children.
Lots of our conversations revolved around how long it would take to become an EU member state, and it is going to take some time. Many visitors were keen to see and understand the nine steps through the EU accession agreement that have to be completed, and also the amount of time this could take to achieve.
We would hope that the UK might achieve the requirements and meet with agreement of the European Commission and Parliament by 2036, that is, within ten years. There is some optimism that, provided the UK government continues its current plans on ‘dynamic alignment’ and avoids excessive deviation from the UK ‘Retained EU Regulations,’ agreements could be achieved sooner. Former MEP Richard Corbett pointed to Finland completing the accession process in three years, suggesting a British ‘rejoin’ application could be similarly speedy.
Of course, one aspect of EU membership concerns adoption of the Euro, which came up in conversation. Whilst that is considered desirable for any new member state, exactly when that must occur would be part of the accession negotiations. The UK is seen as a possible part of the EU’s Enlargement Policy, with a big plus being that many senior officials see that the EU would be stronger if the UK were included, preferably at the top table. This allows for a potential deferment of UK joining the single currency, if that part of the negotiation would delay the membership agreement.
In the opinion of some economists, once the UK makes the commitment to seek membership and its direction of travel is clear, that in itself would become a boost to the economy.
There is now a developing pressure on the new prime minister and government to scrap some of the red lines in this parliament and clearly state an intention for EU accession in the manifesto for the next election. Forthright public agreement must also be demonstrated as part of the accession process, so there is much work still to be done in terms of persuading the public and politicians that returning to EU membership is the patriotic thing to do.
Having said that, our experience at this year’s Tolpuddle Festival suggests a political campaign to Rejoin the EU would be greeted with both interest and enthusiasm!
