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but where did the money come from? The EU doesn't just randomly dole out capital, right? The UK must pay into some sort of central fund? I have heard they pay a

• vidarh 10y ago
  The EU doesn't "just randomly dole out capital", no, but Cornwall is one of the most deprived regions of the EU, and so got development funds from funding mechanisms earmarked for under-developed regions. Notably, it was/is this underdeveloped because pre-EU British government had not bothered to invest much in Cornwall. In terms of payments, the UK is a net contributor overall, but part of the issue is that the UK could have funnelled money into regional development whenever it wanted to, but hasn't, so for Cornwall to think that the government will prioritise them now is quite comical, given that the government will have to prepare for extensive reductions in treasury income that's likely to make the EU contributions seem cheap. This has been a recurring theme: The wishful thinking that a post-Brexit UK government will suddenly change priorities and allocate lots of money to things they have been mercilessly cutting so far, even in the face of massive economic uncertainty. Many of the areas voting Leave will be in the same boat as Cornwall of having substantial EU funding stripped, while facing an uphill battle to convince the UK government to replace it.