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The regulatory superpower next door
17/04/2024
What, then, of the UK? Despite the UK technically being free of Brussels ‘red tape’, the EU remains its chief export market. That means British businesses have little choice but to follow new EU regulations – on packaging, due diligence, and much else – to maintain market access. And so, EU regulations become de facto UK ones.
Civil servants in Northern Ireland will have to face “capability and capacity” issues when examining new EU laws and assessing their consequences, MLAs have been told.
The City of London was supposed to have been set free by Britain’s departure from the EU. That’s not how it’s turning out. / In a reversal of the roles they've been used to playing, Britain is demanding the EU toughen up rules, worried about the threat of another financial crisis.
When the government announced this year it would indefinitely delay plans to force UK companies to adopt a new post-Brexit quality mark, the UKCA, Simon Blackham, of the insulation maker Recticel, was delighted. “Yes! An outbreak of common sense,” he recalls thinking. / His joy was short-lived, however.
EU rules designed to protect rivers from agricultural pollution are set to come to an end on 1 January 2024. / A Brexit law change is set to worsen the state of Britain’s rivers as the Government ditches old EU rules designed to protect the waterways from agricultural pollution.
The year in Brexit
20/12/2023
The past 12 months have been littered with grandiose claims about the benefits of Brexit and the ability of the UK to demand what it wants from the EU. But the sad and inescapable conclusion is that none of those benefits exist and that the UK has been forced into a number of embarrassing retreats and compromises.
What is ‘trivergence’? As we head towards 2024, Joël Reland explains why the risk of Northern Ireland diverging from both EU and UK regulations could be the next big Brexit issue coming down the track.
Farmers will no longer have to follow EU regulations in areas such as reducing agricultural runoff into rivers.
Experts say alteration to holiday rights is one of the most significant erosions of employment protections since UK left EU.
We need to forge alliances to continue our global health leadership, writes the director of the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations.
Wine, the pint bottle and European standards
23/11/2023
Policymakers in the UK have to adjust to the reality of no longer setting international standards. The UK no longer offers markets of bulk. Nor does it have recognised high standards that others are keen to adopt.
Brexit: despatches from the downside – No 9
17/11/2023
Your weekly update from the Brexit ‘downside bunker’, chronicling the downsides, and occasional upsides, of Brexit.
EU restricts use of eight chemicals, with 16 more in pipeline; UK has two under consideration.
The term doesn’t mean it doesn’t meet EU standards. Just that Brexiters want to insist they have the right to diverge, even if it were madness to do so.
A brutal Financial Times investigation has unveiled the “all pain no gain” trading conditions many British businesses face post-Brexit.
Deleting national emissions ceiling regulations as part of scrapping EU laws ‘a clear example of deregulation’. / The government is ignoring its post-Brexit green watchdog over the removal of air quality regulations, in a move that has been described by experts as “a clear example of deregulation”.
UKCA: a symbol of the folly of Brexit
01/08/2023
I said that I would break the ‘summer recess’ of this blog if a Brexit event of sufficient interest or importance occurred and it has, with the government’s announcement today of an “indefinite extension to the use of CE [Conformité Européenne] marking for British businesses”.
Adoption of Britain-only rival to EU’s CE designation postponed ‘indefinitely’, say ministers.
The government has quietly admitted Singapore-on-Thames is dead.
Gummies, so yummy but ...
03/07/2023
...titanium dioxide. "Some gummy companies use it because it’s a convenient and cheap ingredient that creates a specific structure and taste, and adds this pastel coating on pills. But in 2022, the EU banned it. The UK was supposed to follow, but Brexit cancelled all those decisions.
World-renowned economist Adam Posen reveals some tough truths about Britain’s situation.
Britain should continue following EU car regulations to avoid extra costs for consumers, says the boss of Ford. / Tim Slatter's comments come as car manufacturers prepare for the first major review of Britain's post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.
Rishi Sunak has smothered the “Brexit bonfire” of EU laws – and hard-line Brexiteers are fuming with rage. But the prime minister smartly refused to be the face of this u-turn, putting business secretary Kemi Badenoch on the front stage herself.
The leaders of our political parties cannot go on hiding from the damage to our economy, our reputation in the world and the frustration of our younger generation, writes Lord Michael Heseltine.