Framed as giving businesses more flexibility to use either the UKCA (UK Conformity Assessed) or CE marking to sell products in Britain, who would voluntarily choose to use UKCA?
The Daily Mail had the mickey taken out of it on social media over claims that new "Brexit freedoms" would allow pavement dining to become a 'permanent feature of the high street' after business secretary Kemi Badenoch announced plans to remove red tape for pubs, restaurants, and cafes. It implied the EU doesn't permit pavement dining, which everybody I think knows is simply ludicrous.
The official press release talks of a new rule that means new regulations can only be introduced when it is “absolutely necessary” meaning local businesses won’t face an "unexpected and unnecessary regulation like the changes we’re consulting on that will make it easier for bars and pubs to serve you a drink on a terrace." That's supposed to be a benefit of Brexit.
Jim Ratcliffe, Monaco-based, Brexit-supporting billionaire and founder of INEOS, a company that bought up a lot of the old ICI assets cheaply and now makes a Land Rover look-alike in France, says Brexit hasn't "turned out as anticipated." Anticipated by him perhaps, not be the 16 million who voted to remain.
Ratcliffe demonstrates that stupidity is not the preserve of the poor. He comes across as a common-or-garden racist. Brexit apparently “was largely about immigration”, as “vast numbers of people” coming into the country had overburdened the NHS and police, he told Sky News: “That’s what Brexit was all about, and nobody’s implemented that. They just keep talking about it. But nothing’s been done, which is why I think we’ll finish up with the change of government.”
Professor Chris Grey perhaps has the best comment on the problem the Tories face, with this gem:
"So the Tory leadership, meaning not just Sunak but the party as a governing party, is now in an impossible situation (of its own making, so weep no tears). It can’t claim Brexit to be a success, because those who do not have a foundational belief in its rightness can clearly see it has failed, whilst those for whom its rightness is a foundational belief also believe that it has been betrayed. But it can’t denounce Brexit as a failure or a betrayal, since it is the Brexit the Tory leadership actually delivered."
All of which brings me to some polling. The latest survey by YouGov, taken on 16 May shows that by 65% to 35% (after don't knows are removed), voters now think leaving the EU was a mistake. This is a new record high.
Digging into the data, there is now no cohort, age group, gender, social class, region, or UK nation that doesn't think Brexit was wrong - except the over 65s, and even that is down to just 52% still believing it was the right decision.
Of those who voted to leave in 2016, only 67% now think it was right while nearly a quarter (24%) think it was a mistake. 91% of Remain voters think it was wrong, a figure that has barely moved over the last 8 years.. That's quite telling isn't it?
So, when I read Brexiteers saying Brexit is irreversible (as Lord Moylan has) I think they're badly wrong. That or democracy in this country is at an end.
