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”.

This situation has to come to prominence because of the daft notion of the current government that somehow all the laws of the United Kingdom are based on the law of the European Union can be identified and replaced at speed. / The entire exercise is ludicrous, as well as probably impossible.

Bob Hancké reports on a recent study which suggests not only that the agreement has made trade in goods between the UK and the EU very difficult, but that it has also severely limited Britain’s ability to conclude free trade agreements with the rest of the world.