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South Wales-based wine importer Daniel Lambert challenged an MP to a radio debate on the benefits claimed for “pints of wine”. Will he do it?
Brexit Chickens Come Home to Roost
07/06/2022
While the picture’s hardly pretty and certainly not what advocates of Brexit envisioned, none of it surprises economists. As a former Bank of England official observed: “You run a trade war against yourself, bad things happen.”
As Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to depart Downing Street, tossed from office by his own party, his legacy — the opening lines of his eventual obituary — will call him the man who “got Brexit done.” / So how is that going? What can be said about the post-Brexit Britain that Johnson is leaving behind?
Brexit Opportunities Abound – Part 2
17/02/2022
Continuing the letter to Jacob Rees-Mogg, reminding him – he seems to need reminding – of the many new opportunities created by Brexit.
The Brexit brigade is still going on about bendy bananas and the return of imperial measures. But it is a strategy born of ignorance or – worse – panic.
BVTV: Brexit fantasy ends
08/07/2022
The idea of Brexit as a force for reordering British society expired with Boris Johnson’s resignation speech, Peter Thal Larsen says.
The results of our analysis showed that 98.7% of respondents were in favour of using metric units when buying or selling product, either as the primary unit of sale (maintaining status quo) or as the sole unit of sale (purely metric). 1.3% of respondents were in favour of increased use of imperial units...
We received 101,108 responses to our consultation. Out of the responses we analysed, we identified 93,041 as being from consumers, 4,718 from businesses and 3,179 from academia, healthcare, government and trading standards, and other organisations. ...the majority of respondents expressed limited or no appetite for increased use of imperial measures.
Editorial: The UK’s six-year Brexit hangover
05/01/2023
There's little talk of reversing the decision, but evidence of Brexit-induced harm is piling up.
English wine producers look set to pass up the chance to sell wine by the pint, despite a triumphant announcement from the government that it had given them the “Brexit freedom” to do so.
French champagne makers say they have no plans to sell UK government’s Brexit pint bottles
05/02/2022
Government’s Brexit push to bring back Winston Churchill’s favourite champagne measure met with indifference.
Government scraps 'Brexit dividend' plan to bring back imperial measurements in shops after almost 99% of voters say they prefer metric measures
27/12/2023
Ministers have canned plans to allow shops to sell in imperial measurements only after the public said they preferred their metres and kilograms to their pounds and feet.
Business minister mocked for ‘ludicrous’ attempt to quantify ‘Brexit benefit’.
In a nutshell, the consultation explores the possibility of removing the requirement to use metric units in some areas of trade and commerce. It is a deeply flawed survey over an unnecessary, wasteful and potentially damaging proposal.
Imperial Idiocy: Could ‘Brexit opportunities’ include turning our back on the metric system?
14/02/2022
The madness of bringing back measurements no-one understands and most of the world does not use.
Leaving the EU was supposed to enable innovation, not tedious headline-grabbing.
Business department consulting on bringing back archaic system of units. / A “biased” consultation into reintroducing imperial measurements launched by the government has been criticised for giving the public no option to reject the change.
A slow metric transition in Britain has led to widespread myths about metrication in the UK. Unfortunately, many (but certainly not all) anti-EU campaigners have also opposed metrication and have spread myths about metrication to attack Britain’s participation in the EU.
Today is one year since the “Choice on units of measurement: markings and sales” consultation closed. It is about Government proposals to remove the requirement to show metric units alongside imperial units in trade or allow metric units to be shown with less prominence than imperial units.
The poet Robert Burns imagined a man toasting his lover with a “pint o’ wine”, and Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous proponent of the pint bottle for champagne. Now, Rishi Sunak’s government has spied a “Brexit opportunity” to legalise the sale of wine by the pint once more – if it can persuade anyone to make the bottles.
Post Brexit inflation is making UK "sick man of Europe" | Economics | The New Statesman [22 mins]
18/06/2022
A "perfect storm" of Brexit, covid and poor macroeconomic fiscal policies by the Conservatives has weakened Britain's economy and diminished the UK's standing in Europe, says economist Duncan Weldon.
Return of imperial system on cards for Brexit Britain – measurements have always been political
21/09/2021
Some in government would now like to see Britain’s imperial measurements make a comeback. As part of a review on EU laws still in place after Brexit, the government plans to remove a ban on selling goods using only imperial units.
Just in case a Brexit vote today marks the beginning of the end of the euro-myth, we celebrate the most inventive red herrings of all and judge just how truthful they were.