Iceland has voted against restarting EU accession negotiations, in a referendum that saw 52.8 per cent oppose the move against 47.2 per cent in favour. Writing in the Daily Mail, commentator Dan Hannan argues the result underlines that a small, prosperous nation with a strong parliamentary tradition and well-managed resources such as fisheries had little incentive to join a bloc he characterises as being in decline, and he uses the vote to question why some in Britain continue to campaign for reversing Brexit.

Iceland first applied for EU membership in 2009 following the banking crisis, but shelved the bid in 2015 after recovering from the crash faster than the EU itself, partly by declining to bail out its banks. Hannan notes Iceland already has close economic ties to the bloc through the European Economic Area, covering the single market except for agriculture and fisheries, while remaining outside the customs union and free to pursue independent trade deals, including with China and Indonesia. He contrasts this pragmatic, cost-benefit approach with what he describes as a continuing "culture war" over Brexit in Britain, and cites reported rising opposition to EU membership in Norway as evidence of wider Eurosceptic sentiment.