Thread by @Usherwood

Let's fisk the explanatory notes to the #QueensSpeech on Brexit, shall we?

You can find the text here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/upl…

tl;dr for something that was to be so transformative, there's not actually much immediate change coming

1/

We can start by observing that what was the central question of British politics for the past 5 or more years finds itself shunted behind Covid (and various other things) to page 48 of the document

2/

Potentially the most important part of of the section is this, given its nebulous objectives and scope for longer-run change.

Note the focus on removing barriers (and, possibly, apostrophes), but also the lack of outputs so far, suggesting there aren't many easy wins

3/

But the Govt has found some things

But not all of them are actually very Brexit-y

4/

Both subsidies and procurement are certainly notable shifts from EU constraints: indeed, leaving the EU has meant that new policies were required, so there's been an effective continuation of the old systems

5/

Freeports are not an EU-forbidden thing, whatever you're told, just an economically unsound thing, so let's keep them out of it (at least until their incompatibility with FTAs crops up some more)

6/

Likewise, the UK always had control over non-EU immigration, so that Professional Qualifications Bill could have turned up at any point before now

7/

The Planning Bill's divergence from previous environmental impact standards will depend on the detail, but remember how much the rest of this Queen's Speech is putting into greenery, so maybe it'll be more about tidying-up

8/

The less said on Turing, the better, except to reiterate that exchange schemes tend to work better when you have: A) places to exchange with, and B) funding to support those exchanges

9/

Last on the list is animal welfare, but from the reading of the text on these Bills, it's not obvious how higher domestic standards than EU minima would have been impossible beforehand.

Looks good, though, because everyone loves animals

10/

So, to sum up:
- some replacement systems that will mark some divergence (although the LPF commitments in the TCA);
- more things that weren't stopped before by the EU;
- a general intention to do more, just as soon as someone works out what

11/

This morning, Govt was talking about 'revivification', but I struggle to see how this package is yet enough to disturb a light snooze

/end

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