Can we please stop the nonsense about Brexit?
No, Brexit has not hit GDP by 8%. No, joining the Customs Union is not a good idea. And no, taking economic regulations with no say is not a benefit. Make this nonsense stop.
I saw in the Financial Times last week, that the UK wants to align to EU law on animal and plant health while also opting out of rules to suit ourselves.
Labour wants to keep rules that:
Allow stronger hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) products of up to 10mg versus the EU’s 2mg limit,
Maintain bans on live animal exports and foie gras, and
Protect domestic innovation in areas such as lab‑grown meat, algae and insect products, gene‑edited crops and a bovine TB vaccine.
“The UK government is being lobbied by multiple sectors for exceptions, including foodmakers, farmers and the chemical industry,” we learn. The CBD industry fears losing this benefit of Brexit and rightly says, “The industry should not find itself being ruled by regulatory decisions where the UK has no vote and no voice.” The National Farmers’ Union wants to protect gene editing and a new TB vaccine.
The Cabinet Office says, “We are making a sovereign choice in the national interest to align in some areas where it makes sense to do so”. It is fatuous to call this a sovereign choice while knowingly accepting indefinite subordination without a voice: this rubbish was said about membership itself.
Sovereignty is not merely the technical possibility of making a one‑off decision. It is the continuing ability to govern yourself: to set and revise your own rules in the light of your own needs. When you adopt the regulatory framework of a foreign power, when commercial realities make reversal prohibitively costly and when you have no seat at the table where the rules are made, you may have exercised a choice at the outset but you have chosen powerless subordination thereafter.
It is extraordinary that anyone prefers this submission to the arbitrary power of others. Yet in her recent lecture, the Chancellor made the case for accepting EU law, saying, “a decision to align should mean higher growth and investment, more jobs and consumer benefits for the long term,” so let’s get into the options and why we would be better off as an independent country.
Yes that’s right: it’s back to the old Brexit arguments thanks to this Labour government. And if you think this is bad, wait until Nigel Farage takes power and reverses the lot…
Here we go.
