Plans to open a Museum of Brexit appear to have stalled, with the website comically listing a peer who passed away over a year ago among its backers.
The museum was proposed in the aftermath of the vote to leave the European Union in 2016, with campaigners calling for a resource to counteract “misperceptions, fake news, and myth” around the momentous decision.
According to the museum’s website, the objective is to “plug that gap at the time when it is easiest, right now while memories are fresh, attics are still filled with treasures, and before items and stories get lost”.
They add that it wouldn’t only include artefacts from the vote in 2016, but add in deeper historical context and “how the UK came to be the way it is – including areas that tend to get skipped on the national curriculum.”
But the plans appear to have stalled, with the website remaining dormant for years.
Writing to the Yorkshire Post, Richard Wilson, chair of Leeds for Europe, said:
The first time we mentioned this on your letters page, we drew attention to a weird idea floating around at the time (‘Museum of Brexit? Fly the Europe flag instead’, August 24 2020).
Much like Brexit itself, this museum project isn’t delivering on its promises. It had been reported that potential sites had been whittled down to Peterborough or Boston, with “plans to open in two years’ time”, but that was back in 2021.
Would Peterborough or Boston still be happy to be so closely associated with such a catastrophic project? By which I mean Brexit itself, of course.
Another indication the museum project has lost momentum – much like Brexit itself – is a list on its website of the lords, ladies and other eminent personages backing it. They include former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Vote Leave chair Nigel Lawson. The website fails to recognise that Lord Lawson passed away in April 2023.
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