So what has Brexit brought Brits? Reduced & harder access to & removed rights on their continent. (With more - EES/Etias- to come) Less choice of continental goods for more cost but not fully "done" here on GB border inbound controls, with enforcement of UKCA dropped altogether,
To say nothing about the social, political and international diminution we are undoubtedly suffering.
UKCA has always been a non-starter.
I believe UKCA was a Cummings creation, the same bloke that spent 2 years in Russia, embellishing connections to fascists and organised crime. What a patriot! northeastbylines.co.uk/news/politic...
All countries/markets have their own market (Inc food) standards that others have to prove at the border if wanting to sell on their market. UKCA was a reflection of this. Only UK can't afford to enforce it, so unilaterally advantages another (CE/EU's exporters) over its own counterparts
I was in that world for years - I know how it all works. Not just the enforcement - were we ever a big enough market for manufacturers to bother with it?
People want to supply the UK, we are a big market, but not big enough to support a completely different standards regime, which is why we haven't done it. We have pretend brexit sovereignty, as long as nobody looks too closely.
Rule takers. "a classic illustration of how in effect the UK Govt is being forced to adopt EU rules to try and disguise the fact that Northern Ireland is no longer part of the UK market & avoid a situation where some products available in GB are no longer available in NI” www.msn.com/en-gb/entert...
Looking at reports of seized eScooters and Lithium Ion battery charger fires. Government response to the Product Safety Review reveals that we don't have the law making capacity to keep up with tech innovation to ensure the goods sold on our markets will stay safe.
www.gov.uk/government/c...
Recognition here that the machinery directive is being replaced by regulation 2023:1230, in force in 2027. No recognition of the position of NI, which (as I understand it) will have to follow this new EU law, which means bringing it into UK law, as was done with the original machinery directive.
For NI to be compliant, this new regulation should be made law in NI, but it seems politically impossible to make this law in NI, but not in the rest of the UK. Some product categories are updated to mandate notified body assessment, so GB compliant (self cert) goods may not be able to be sold in NI
Quite…
Big enough for some but not all...and UK still wants it all (Brexit can't be seen to be giving less, for more cost)
Pie and sky come to mind…
...so UK has an unlevel playing field heavily in favour of the EU (their exporters) over their GB counterparts. & a smugglers' nirvana. Because to fully enforce the Brexit borders would mean the alt (Mogg's words) "self harm" of even greater rocketing prices for even less choice
To counter this GB will either face levelled down lower border controls & market (import) standards from all other parts of the world to offset these increased costs of trading over resurrected borders against the EU now matching same international borders against rest of world
OR it will (to increase ease of GB trade) become a genuine vassal state to the EU. It did seem Labour was (effective WF for whole UK) planning the latter but if @lizwebster.bsky.social is correct, it will be the - UK dumping ground - former (also here making exports to the EU harder still)
Have I missed anything? Basically everything is (levelled down) worse, with no equal compensating better elsewhere. UK has *chosen* to be diminished, poorer & more cut off from its continent behind its (still descending) Gammon Curtain Has a country ever been so fucking stupid?
Yeah, you've missed Arnott's TimTams ... right Boris Johnson? www.johnlewispartnership.media/pressrelease...
Or Aldi "Benton's Aussie Style" biscuits made in the Netherlands and which win a taste test I think. (Not watched it.) m.youtube.com/watch?v=sYPW...
While chocolate bars have suffered shrinkflation, or recipe changes. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-4286...
Plus reduced chocolate exports (bar to Ireland) "Significant concerns have been expressed by UK’s Food and Drink Federation over a marked drop in exports .. which dropped 15.8% owing to Brexit, post Covid-19 trading complications, war in Ukraine" www.confectioneryproduction.com/news/46539/u....
The thickest nation on the planet.
Hmm. People are starting to be made aware of the scale and nature of Thatcher's treachery. It's water this week. Big report. 88 recommendations. A worthless exercise. Mug Island has an extensive history of epic self harm.
bsky.app/profile/viva...
Disappointing to see that no one seems to have popped up to refute your depressing assessment of our situation! ☹️
I think the problem is that most people see no difference.
Which is why successive UK governments have not & won't get Brexit fully "done" (on UK border controls) on imports from the EU...although they will need to & more so (the WF) from GB to NI, if they want a SPS agreement from the EU .. ..many more would then notice more so. UK's catch 22.
Yes I agree. So far, apart from FoM, they have got away with it. It’s strange. At one point I thought the complexity of NI would stop Brexit, but it will mean the full blown effects are inevitable. Maybe some political/constitutional change will then happen
I think they’re working with Trump to try force the EU to deregulate. See 👇 www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Airstrip One redux. A message for who? www.bbc.com/news/uk-engl...
UK already has the ready made, privately owned "Freeports" and SEZs to do so.. (Labour) "nothing to do with us guvnor"
It’s a horror story.
With no end in sight. The TCA is unworkable without huge problems fully implementing a hard border UK side. Labour's red lines rule out any solution (ETFA/EEA etc). Surely time to start preparing the ground for a referendum that has the various options clearly explained to allow informed choices.
I don't think so. EU (like Canada, Mexico, Japan and others) does not want to raise the stakes before seeing if T.A.C.O.
“Have I missed anything?” Only that one of the leading pushers of Brexit now leads one of if not the it the best polling parties, and poses an existential threat to the Tories.
It still surprises me how people don’t connect the dots with prices in the shops. If higher UK prices are down to Covid, the weather, Putin, Trump etc why are things so much cheaper everywhere else in Europe 🤔