🚨"UK failure to create post-Brexit chemical regulations risks ‘irreparable damage". New important but grim #brexitreality story by @pmdfoster on the (failed) attempts by UKG to create an affordable post-Brexit regulatory regime for the chem industry. 🧵 ft.com/content/2d58ee…
1) "After Brexit, the UK quit the EU’s Reach chemical management system but has delayed the introduction of its own arrangements after a government impact assessment discovered it would cost the industry a [staggering] £2bn to duplicate the safety data already held in Brussels."
2) "However, attempts to broker a deal with industry to reduce the cost of re-registering 22,400 chemicals with a copycat UK “Reach” system run by the government’s Health and Safety Executive are failing to bear fruit".
3) "The industry argues it is needlessly expensive to duplicate registrations where chemicals have already passed safety tests in the EU but for legal and intellectual property reasons, the underlying data for legal for those registrations is not available to the UK regulator. "
4) "However, conservation and environmental groups have said that unless the UK regulator is in full possession of the data, it cannot regulate effectively." This year the UKG announced a three-year extension to deadlines for completing full UK Reach registrations but...
5) Industry and Chemical Industry Association tells that "deadline extensions were helpful they reflected the “very limited progress” in negotiations over UK Reach" and said they need " tangible progress . . . and we need it fast." /ends h/t @brexit_sham@BestForBritain
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🔥🔥 @StefaanDeRynck suggested at some point to organise a #brexit book festival. Here is a list of books which I think should make the festival (including forthcoming books) commencing with the oldest title: 🧵
1) @tconnellyRTE already wrote in 2017 on how Brexit represented the single greatest economic and foreign-policy challenge to the Irish state since the Second World War: amazon.co.uk/Brexit-Ireland…
2) @anandMenon1 and Geoffrey Evans also in 2017 suggested rightly in hindsight that Brexit has changed everything - from our government, to our economy and principal trading relationship, to the organization of our state. amazon.com/Brexit-British…
1) 1) Realistically, and I think Gideon recognises this, there needs to be some type of common cross-party political leadership seriously advancing rejoin and a new referendum. This is perhaps the largest obstacle and is perhaps understated in the article.
2) It is not thus sufficient that the general public is swayed as indicated by recent polls but UK politicians also need to board. Over time, yes, it is likely they will when support for rejoin (by the younger generation) becomes even stronger. But it will take time.
Essential report by @tconnellyRTE of latest developments in the NI Protocol negotiations. Agreement seems to be secure between EU and UK on the Red and Green Lane which is very promising despite the threat of potential leaks . @jude_webber@BelfastAgmt
Outstanding issues are nonetheless politically significant. Unsurprisingly it seems that EU Com would never agree to surrender CJEU jurisdiction for the NI Protocol.
Furthermore, there is no clarity in whether and if so how Sunak has managed to get DUP and Brexit hardliners onboard for the deal with the EU.
Powerful final of the year #brexit newsletter by @pmdfoster painting a bleak but honest picture of 2022 where #brexit again returned "to prominence as the mounting economic effects of leaving the EU single market became clear". Short recap of key points: ft.com/content/1b4b8e…
1) Very little progress has been made on the relationship with the EU: ' As we enter 2023, we are still waiting for another “big push” for a deal on the Northern Ireland Protocol... and the UK government has still not imposed border controls on goods coming from the EU'.
2) This is bad news for UK business as "this creates a very one-sided arrangement in which UK exporters face friction, while their EU competitors do not. And British industry has been primed to expect a further year’s delay on introducing UK border controls."
Excellent and important scoop by @pmdfoster reporting on a damning @britishchambers report into the EU-UK trade deal which finds unsurprisingly that business really struggles to trade with the EU. Some general points:
1) As reported in previous @FT articles by Peter and others, business owners and Chamber of Commerce seeks a more honest conversation with the UKG on the costs of the low ambition trade deal with the EU.
2) The BCC membership survey in the report found strikingly that 77 per cent of companies that were affected by the deal said it was not helping them increase sales while 56 per cent of respondents said they faced difficulties adapting to the new rules for trading goods.
Media alert: I was interviewed yesterday by @dagensnyheter which is one of the leading Swedish daily newspapers. This is a longer critical article in Swedish on the new Government's proposals for visitation zones and anonymous witnesses. Small 🧵 dn.se/sverige/skarp-…
1) A "visitation zone" means that the police can stop people on the street, on their bicycles or in their cars to check their possessions, search their bags and even a body search, if needed, may be done: yourdanishlife.dk/gang-related-v…
2) The proposal is based on the Danish experience where it is claimed that visitationes zones have been used succesfully to cool gang conflicts.