Brexit: Now What? Part IV

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Davis says the EU must recognise British standards and regulations after Brexit.

Yup that's going to happen.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...eech-vienna-not-required-to-bey-a8219166.html

Britain wants a Brexit trade deal that gives it free, unrestricted access to EU markets but where it was “not required to obey European rules”, David Davis has said.

Speaking to business leaders in Vienna the Brexit Secretary rejected the idea that the UK has to stay aligned with EU regulations to avoid trade barriers, and called for “mutual recognition” between the two regulatory regimes to avoid cutting British firms off from the continent.
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Captain_Swoop said:
Davis says the EU must recognise British standards and regulations after Brexit.

Yup that's going to happen.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...eech-vienna-not-required-to-bey-a8219166.html
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Why has not a single one of those business leaders asked him during the Q&A if he's completely bonkers?

Oh, and this is also a gem:
Mr Davis also reiterated a UK warning that if Britain did not strike a trade deal, it would withhold the massive cash payment to Brussels agreed as phase one of the Brexit negotiations.
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Maybe it would be wise to reintroduce the medieval custom of exchanging hostages to ensure a treaty is upheld. :rolleyes:
 
ceptimus said:
World standards are the way forward. Much better than parochial standards.
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Good luck with that :rolleyes:

I mean in an ideal world of course there would be common standards but aligning 200+ countries and territories has proven to be very difficult indeed. With some new "greenfield" technologies the barriers have proven to be comparatively low but OTOH if the UK is baulking at kowtowing to the EU and adhering to EU standards I don't see the UK being happy kowtowing to China, India, Brazil, the US or whoever else has been influential in implementing global standards.

IMO "global standards" is code for lower standards (cf earlier comments by JRM about how the UK should be happy with lower, Indian, standards) - the veil is slipping and it's clear that the future envisaged by the Brexiteers is a "Sweatshop Britannia" competing with the developing world on price not a "Great Britain" competing with the developed world on quality and innovation.

Brexit Britain - proudly striving for the lowest common denominator :mad:
 
Many EU standards and existing world standards were derived from old British standards. Electrical safety standards in Britain had to take a step backwards when we joined the EU, (called the common market back then). Like all safety standards, they have moved forwards again in recent years.
 
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ceptimus said:
Many EU standards and existing world standards were derived from old British standards. Electrical safety standards in Britain had to take a step backwards when we joined the EU
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But EU standards and regulations have always been touted as "health and safety gone mad" by those opposed to our membership. Now you're saying they are actually less stringent than those we already had? A lot of the people who voted leave because they believed such BS stories would be very surprised to hear that.
 
Yes.
I seem to remember there was a whole hoo-ha (led by Dyson) over energy consumption standards for vacuum cleaners, for example.

Except, of course, now we can get effective cleaners which are cheaper to run.
 
ceptimus said:
Many EU standards and existing world standards were derived from old British standards. Electrical safety standards in Britain had to take a step backwards when we joined the EU, (called the common market back then). Like all safety standards, they have moved forwards again in recent years.
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Can you identify some specific examples? It seems the UK is very much still using British Standards.
 
Information Analyst said:
Can you identify some specific examples? It seems the UK is very much still using British Standards.
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Most (electrical) standards now derive from the IEC (world) standards. The EU, and or the UK may adopt these standards and give them their own numbers - for example a British Standard number, but they very rarely add anything (in terms of safety) to what is already laid down by the IEC standard. Over the last fifty years or so there has been a gradual move to the adoption of IEC standards so that if a product meets those standards then, from an electrical safety point of view, it can usually be exported worldwide.

I don't know as much about other standards that cover non-electrical items: the situation is probably different for those.
 
Unless Hunt is going freelance with today's comments (which would be far from the first time for this cabinet) then it seems the Chequers meeting ruled out remaining in the customs union -

"The government will not consider entering into a customs union with the EU after Brexit, Jeremy Hunt has insisted, setting up a Commons fight over the cabinet’s plans for leaving the bloc that could inflict a damaging defeat on the prime minister."

I might mosey off and check the odds on May ceasing to be PM this year ;)
 
That isn't news. Given that remaining in the customs union prevents us from making our own trade deals with non-EU countries, plus the fact that Theresa May has said over and over again that we will leave the customs union, it can come as a surprise to no one that Hunt has, once again, ruled it out.

Remain enthusiasts seem to think that repeating the same thing over and over again might make it true. They must base their politics on Lewis Caroll's The Hunting of the Snark nonsense poem.
 
So a collapse of the Good Friday Agreement it is then and a return to the 'Troubles'
 
ceptimus said:
Most (electrical) standards now derive from the IEC (world) standards. The EU, and or the UK may adopt these standards and give them their own numbers - for example a British Standard number, but they very rarely add anything (in terms of safety) to what is already laid down by the IEC standard. Over the last fifty years or so there has been a gradual move to the adoption of IEC standards so that if a product meets those standards then, from an electrical safety point of view, it can usually be exported worldwide.

I don't know as much about other standards that cover non-electrical items: the situation is probably different for those.
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I was thining more about the second sentence:

Electrical safety standards in Britain had to take a step backwards when we joined the EU, (called the common market back then).
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You seem to be suggesting that Britain had high standards that had to be lowered.
 
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ceptimus said:
That isn't news. Given that remaining in the customs union prevents us from making our own trade deals with non-EU countries, plus the fact that Theresa May has said over and over again that we will leave the customs union, it can come as a surprise to no one that Hunt has, once again, ruled it out.
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What's news is that they didn't change their minds. They face a Commons vote and a Labour leader who might well now be leaning towards staying in the customs union. All of which could spell an early end for May.
 
This site allows you to track the Euro / Pound exchange rate. https://www.finder.com/uk/brexit-pound

You can alter the start and end dates of the graph to zoom in, but by default it goes from about May 2015 to the present. On that graph the "collapse" following the referendum can clearly be seen, but the downward trend in the first half of the graph (before referendum) is a little steeper than since.
 
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