Excellent piece on the idiocy of thinking BREXIT will cut down on bureaucracy.
Why Brexit will lead to more red tape, not less | Tom Kibasis | Opinion | The GuardianPutting the lead back in paint, the sewage back on beaches and enhancing the lethality of children’s toys. These are just some of the “opportunities” for deregulation offered in Sajid Javid’s call for the public to propose ways to diverge from the EU rulebook.
Slashing European regulation has long been an article of faith for the Tory party, fulfilling both its Thatcherite and Europhobic instincts. No matter that recent history – from the global financial crisis to the tragedy at Grenfell Tower – has taught us that regulation is a public good to be protected, not an evil to be eradicated.
Just like Boris Johnson, Javid has learned to live outside history, eschewing any responsibility for his party’s decade in power. Brexit is presented as a fresh start for the country and the government. The idea of divergence is crucial to provide Brexit with a sense of purpose.
But the truth is Brexit will create a more bureaucratic state rather than a more agile one. The UK now needs to build its own regulatory functions in Whitehall to replace those that were delegated to Brussels. From medicines to chemicals to aviation, the UK will need to replicate European agencies, no matter the chancellor’s ideological bent. Instead of sharing these regulatory functions with 27 other states, Britain will now need to shoulder the responsibility alone. Brexit will be a boon for British bureaucrats.
Good regulation requires deep technical expertise. Neither the public, politicians nor commentators possess the expertise to judge whether medicines are safe or whether complex financial instruments pose a risk to economic stability. Brexit may have been the politics of the gut – the instinct that the country would be better off out – but it is only viable with a vast expansion in the number of technocrats.
So what will these technocrats do? The fundamental error is to think that less burdensome regulation means a lower regulatory burden. In practice it means two sets of regulation to replace one, if the UK and the EU operate with different standards and rules – even if they are lighter touch here than across the Channel. That means complexity goes up, not down.
Moreover, product markets are increasingly global, not local. So any firm that wants to export into the European single market will need to match its regulatory requirements. Products will be produced to the highest standards, not the lowest. For any goods produced here that firms want to export, deregulation is merely a mirage.
There are some areas where Britain could realistically deregulate, though none are desirable. It could erode workers’ rights, lowering the cost of production. But we already have one of the most “flexible” labour markets in the world – and many Brexit voters expect more protection not less. The UK could cut back on environmental standards, but this would be inconsistent with commitments under the Paris climate agreement.
While financial regulation was given effect by an EU directive, this was based on the global Basel agreements: diverging from these would make the UK a pariah a little over a decade since the global financial crisis nearly tipped the world economy into a depression due to the sharp business practices of banks in the City of London as much as Wall Street. The Bank of England has always been a more important financial regulator than the European commission.
The truth is that Britain’s economic problems are the result of a failed free-market model. The path to success lies in a more active and entrepreneurial state that works in partnership with business and unions to raise productivity and unleash innovation. Our problems are of our own making. Only in the delusions of Brexit fantasists is putting the lead back in paint the way to put the great back in Great Britain.
Indeed, as I said earlier, how could the heralded post Brexit re-introduction of tariffs and quotas subject to customs clearances and compliance certificates be less bureaucratic than the frictionless, unfettered free trade in the single market without any barriers that preceded it?
Tax, can you explain this?
Can anyone?
the really stupid thing was to leave the common market, it's one thing to disengage from the political decisions bodies in the EU, it's another to quit a tax free market place,
I blame it on overzealous May who was trying to mark history with bold decisions, no matter how stupid and dangerous they were
Pop one in Butters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tampon_tax
"Brexit...an act of the imagination, inspired by an imaginary past, carried along by misdirected grievances, borne aloft by an imaginary future." - WashPo
Must confess the rhetoric coming out of those we should (be able to) trust is less than inspiring.
The EU will not allow a party to leave without a cost, a detrimental cost and this was always the case so WTO here we come.
What's your interest in Brexit PH?
Now we are leaving and all that.
Last edited by Jack meoff; 09-02-2020 at 08:27 AM.
Mainly just 'interest' as it doesn't affect me directly, nor does it affect the vast majority of europeans, which I am - as are my daughters.
I find it fascinating how 52% of a population can follow such a, in my opinion, misguided and detrimental move - similar to the Trumpian example.
Lived in different parts of Europe, worked in different countries in Europe, had the UK as my 'territory' for several US NCs.
I'd be just as interested if a US state decided it would secede fro the US. A different thing, I know, but still interesting from a political, social and economic view
Brexit numpties are still quite sensitive when they are pilloried by all and sundry for their stupidity and ignorance.
The poor saps are devoted to the delusion leaving the EU is for the best and they are going to prosper whereas Europe will collapse into ruin and despair, but when others in the world take a divergent view they get a tad defensive.
The wheels are already falling off as the ERG/Tory Orc strategy of simply walking away sans a deal fails to move the EU negotiators one inch.
BoJo is presiding over a car accident and his response is to build a deeper bunker in which the word Brexit is banned.
Great fun for we intelligent folk who are now assured of a continuing cabaret in which the theatre of the absurd will play for months to come.
^^ OK
Thanks for your opinion.
Seeking, everyone in Ireland is against Brexit,,,,Its bad for them.
Everyone in Britain with a functioning brain and the ability to use it is against Brexit. Your point is?
We ain't as tick as the micks tink!
An interpretation based on what exactly?
Given that since the stupid referendum outcome the economy has shrunk by over 1%, the currency has devalued by 20% and over the past three years Brexit has cost over £100 billions, FDI has decreased by 20% and manufacturing is at its lowest since the 2008 crash aftermath, one wonders just how successful Brexit is in retrieving that so-called "mistake" in the 1970s.
Still, decent of you to acknowledge it was a minority that secured the result.
Nice touch, who is more upset about leaving?
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/07/continuity-ira-admits-brexit-day-lorry-bomb-plot
Jack he has his business empire around the globe,though when he does any work,that's another story.
That's what I think our glorious Boris is overlooking, or worse, dismissing. The EU cannot afford politically or economically to give us a deal that allows us to prosper faster than them, if at all; they are obliged to make it so expensive that best scenario for UK is to tread waves.
But I still can't see WTO, so all points to either an illegal extension during which nothing changes, or a compromise deal that keeps UK struggling to float.
Sausages,You say uk economy was in decline don't you mean the EU economy was in decline. I believe the IMF has recently said the UK will be the biggest winner in Europe,though I would assume you haven't read any of those reports,just for example Nissan leaving the EU and making its European base in the UK
If you think the Germans are going to let the EU screw us,I think you maybe surprised, are contribution of 7.4 billion was the second biggest to the EU project and will be seen by the germans as a huge loss for them, and any further setbacks will see the Germans contributing more,which could well lead to the non contributors being asked to pay. Not a very good scenario for the EU.
Don't think they will be shooting themselves in the foot,with the Americans and Chinese wanting to trade with UK
Providing there is a deal. And ......The findings of two studies published by the the body show the UK is on track for two years of growth and is anticipated to outperform Germany, France and Italy. The economy is expected to expand by 1.4 percent this year and by 1.5 percent in 2021, it said. It marks an optimistic outlook for the UK’s post-Brexit future after last year’s growth was recorded at 1.3 percent.
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