Post-Brexit News and Discussions

[wjfox]

‘Complete nonsense’: Asda boss mocks post-Brexit plan to return to imperial measures

Thu 2 Jun 2022 23.56 BST

The government’s push to increase the use of imperial measurements in Britain has been mocked as “complete nonsense” and confusing for business.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced it is pressing ahead with plans to review “overbearing EU rules” regarding weights and measurements and restore “common sense” to the statute book.

The move comes 22 years after the EU weights and measures directive first came into effect.

It meant traders were legally required to use metric units for sale-by-weight or the measure of fresh produce, although it is still legal to price goods in pounds and ounces if displayed alongside prices in grams and kilograms.

The announcement of a 12-week consultation comes amid mockery of Boris Johnson’s vision of post-Brexit Britain pricing its food produce in measurements of the past.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... l-measures

[Yuli Ban]

[Time_Traveller]

Fury as government waters down post-Brexit food standards

Mon 13 Jun 2022

Animal welfare campaigners, food policy experts and farmers have reacted with fury after the government watered down post-Brexit trade deal standards in its food strategy, released on Monday.

In a version of the strategy leaked to the Guardian on Friday, the government committed to making it easier for countries to import goods if they have high animal welfare standards.

The draft reads: “We will seek animal welfare-linked liberalisation in our [free trade agreements], allowing us to offer more generous liberalisation for products certified as meeting certain key animal welfare criteria specified in the agreement.”

But the final version is stripped of this and merely commits to “considering” animal welfare and the environment when it comes to free trade agreements.

Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton said: “This looks like yet another shamefully squandered opportunity to cement stringent animal welfare protection into our free trade agreements.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -standards

Sounds like this is the first step into where Australian hormone-injected beef and the US's Chlorine chicken comes to the UK more like?

[Time_Traveller]

Jacob Rees-Mogg plan to axe EU laws sparks cabinet row

Tue 14 Jun 2022

A cabinet row has broken out over Jacob Rees-Mogg’s plans to axe all remaining EU laws in under four years, given concerns about the feasibility of combing through at least 2,000 pieces of legislation while the civil service faces severe cutbacks.

The Brexit opportunities minister is pushing for the laws carried over after Brexit to expire by a “cliff-edge” deadline of 23 June 2026, marking 10 years since the EU referendum.

However, the Guardian has learned that at least two cabinet ministers have railed against the proposal, while officials have said the goal is “literally impossible” – particularly as Rees-Mogg is also spearheading the cull of the civil service.

In a letter to the North Somerset MP, George Eustice said that “messing around” with some rules would mean an additional cost to businesses and be a waste of officials’ time, while senior Whitehall sources voiced fears of a mass deregulation drive by the back door.

Rees-Mogg plans to publish a “Brexit freedoms” bill this summer. In a letter to cabinet colleagues seen by the Guardian, he proposed 23 June 2026 as the date when a “sunset clause” should be activated, causing all “retained EU law” to fall off the UK’s statute book. Alternative dates “significant in the Brexit calendar” are also being considered, such as 31 January 2030, which would mark a decade since Britain left the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... abinet-row

[wjfox]

[Time_Traveller]

I've definitely noticed this in the current role i am doing, even some kinds of fruit have rubbish dates now.

[Time_Traveller]

Tesco Mobile quietly scraps free EU roaming from 2023 as networks cash in post-Brexit

June 18, 2022

Tesco Mobile has become the latest network to abolish free roaming across the EU for new customers, as more mobile providers take advantage of Brexit to charge customers steep fees for calls and data.

The network is set to revive EU roaming charges for new and upgrading customers from 2023, with consumers set to be charged up to 10p per MB to use data and 55p a minute to call from the EU outside of bundles.

Tesco Mobile is still selling 24-month contracts online with the prominently-advertised benefit of “free roaming for 2022” – even though small print slipped into contracts earlier this week stipulates charges will apply from 1 January 2023, when customers will still be locked in for another 18 months.

https://inews.co.uk/news/consumer/tesco ... it-1694213

[Time_Traveller]

Raab urged to let parliament scrutinise Human Rights Act replacement

Tue 21 Jun 2022

Dominic Raab is facing demands today from 150 organisations to allow detailed parliamentary scrutiny of legislation that is expected to replace the Human Rights Act.

The justice secretary has been sent a letter coordinated by the campaign group Liberty calling for the bill of rights to be subjected to “robust consideration” amid fears that it will put the government beyond the reach of the law.

It follows deepening concern that the bill will alter the balance between freedom of expression and privacy and affect people’s rights for many years.

Last week, the justice minister James Cartlidge said in a response to a parliamentary question that the government did not intend to submit the bill of rights for pre-legislative scrutiny – a move that sidesteps demands from parliamentary committees.

The Conservative chair of the justice committee, Bob Neill, called the government’s decision to ignore recommendations from the joint committee on human rights “disappointing”.

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/ju ... ent-letter

[Time_Traveller]

A British bill of rights? This draconian plan is a rights removal bill

Wed 22 Jun 2022

The government’s long-threatened, misleadingly titled and highly controversial bill of rights is finally here. It has been trailed by Dominic Raab and other ministers for years, but the European court of human rights’ intervention in the disgraceful Rwanda refugee scheme last week was apparently the opportune moment to launch this unwanted, unnecessary legislation.

The Ministry of Justice has taken a hatchet to the single most powerful rights tool this country has ever had. Yet its press release announcing the bill suggests this is somehow good news for us all. Suspend your disbelief, but apparently “watering down” the Human Rights Act will in some way equate to an “expansion” of the right to freedom of expression. The MoJ cites journalists and their right to protect sources, suggesting this will be a valuable new protection. In fact, just a few months ago the journalist and former MP Chris Mullen relied on the Human Rights Act for precisely this purpose in an important press freedom case.

Believing that we are set to gain rights through this legislation requires serious mental acrobatics. The bill takes particular aim at “positive obligations”. These are the obligations that apply to public authorities and make it incumbent on them to take positive steps to protect people’s rights rather than merely restrain themselves from violating them. Positive rights are a vital tool that allows victims to hold the police accountable for serious failures in rape case investigations, for example, such as the appallingly mishandled case of the serial rapist John Worboys.

Repeated failings in the way that police and prosecution authorities investigate endemic violence against women has prompted a crisis of public confidence – yet Raab is now reducing victims’ rights to hold the authorities to account.

Positive obligations are also integral to the ability to secure effective public inquiries into deaths where the state may be responsible, such as the long-delayed Covid inquiry. It’s no coincidence, you might think, that the very politicians the Human Rights Act potentially holds to account might want to see it removed and replaced with this ersatz version.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... l#comments

[Time_Traveller]

Australian Free Trade Deal Hampers UK on Environmental & Food Standards

22 June 2022

The UK’s first free trade agreement negotiated from scratch with Australia was so rushed that environmental issues and protection for niche British products were overlooked, a report by peers says today.

The House of Lords International Agreements Committee says the agreement is important as it both paves the way for other agreements in future and for our entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a major Government objective. The deal is estimated to add only a 0.08% increase in GDP by 2035 and rising quotas will phase in tariff-free imports.

The deal will also mean Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, will have to liberalise immigration rules for Australians to come to the UK as part of a mutual arrangement which will allow British people and their families to work in Australia and allow young people up to the age of 35 to go there for three years. The former will be particularly beneficial for lawyers, who will be able to practice law in the UK and Australia, as their professional qualifications will be mutually recognised.

Other beneficiaries will be financial and digital services, architects and car exporters.

The report is highly critical of the speed of the negotiations which led to environmental issues like climate change being ignored. It will allow the import of Australian beef from deforested land, has no section on Australia reducing dependence on coal, and allow the import of crops where pesticides which are banned in the EU and UK have been used.

https://bylinetimes.com/2022/06/23/aust ... ry-report/

[Time_Traveller]

[Time_Traveller]

UK faces ‘significant risks’ to quality of food imported post-Brexit, says report

Mon 27 Jun 2022

The UK is facing “significant risks” to the quality of food being imported and consumed as Brexit, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war puts pressure on standards, according to a new report.

Better controls are needed to ensure the quality of “higher-risk” food coming from the EU post-Brexit – such as meat, dairy, eggs and feed – and to avoid “potential safety incidents” the report by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) and Food Standards Scotland (FSS) said.

They warned that the cost of living crisis would also put pressure on the types of food people could afford to buy.

“Our research shows that concerns about price, health and the environment are high among the public’s priorities,” the report concludes. “In the face of the steep rises in food prices, and widener pressures on household incomes … we recognise that it is almost certain to become more challenging for consumers to access affordable healthy and sustainable food this year.”

The inaugural report, published on Monday, concluded that food standards were maintained in 2021 despite the upheaval but said this was a “cautious conclusion” and warned of challenges ahead.

“Establishing full UK import controls on food by the end of next year from the EU is a priority,” said Prof Susan Jebb, the chair of the FSA. “The longer the UK operates without assurance that products from the EU meet our high food and feed safety standards, the less confident we can be that we can effectively identify potential safety incidents.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ays-report

[Time_Traveller]

Boris Johnson defends Northern Ireland protocol bill ahead of Commons vote

Mon 27 Jun 2022

Boris Johnson has defended the government’s legislation disapplying parts of the Northern Ireland protocol, which will face its first hurdle in the House of Commons on Monday.

Speaking in Bavaria, where he is attending a G7 summit, the prime minister said: “What we’re trying to do is fix something that I think is very important to our country, which is the balance of the Belfast/Good Friday agreement.”

He added: “You’ve got one community which feels that things really aren’t working in a way which they like or understand. You’ve got unnecessary barriers to trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. All we are saying is that you can get rid of those without in any way endangering the EU single market.”

People take part in a Border Communities Against Brexit protest outside Hillsborough Castle in County Down during a visit by Boris Johnson in May
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He suggested the changes that the bill will make possible could be in place by the end of this year.

MPs will have their first opportunity later on Monday to vote on the bill. The foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has put the UK on a collision course with the EU by pressing ahead with the legislation, which will allow ministers to override parts of the agreement Johnson signed in 2019.

The foreign secretary set out her position in an article in the Financial Times on Monday. She said there was a “simple logic” for going ahead, despite claims the legislation will breach the free trade agreement the UK signed with the EU.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ote-brexit

[Time_Traveller]

Northern Ireland Protocol: Government bid to override parts of Brexit deal passes first Commons hurdle

Monday 27 June 2022

Boris Johnson's legislation to scrap parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol has cleared its first Commons hurdle.

The bill passed by 295 votes to 221 despite attracting fierce criticism from a number of MPs on the Tory benches as well as the opposition.

Critics, who include former prime minister Theresa May, say the plan is illegal and threatens to spark a trade war with Europe.

The bill must now go through in-depth scrutiny by MPs and a further Commons vote and then pass to the Lords, before becoming law.

Earlier, Mrs May delivered a stinging rebuke to Boris Johnson's plan to override parts of the protocol.

The former prime minister told fellow MPs she could not support the controversial legislation - which she said would be illegal, fail to achieve its aims, and diminish Britain's standing in the world.

https://news.sky.com/story/northern-ire ... e-12641369

[Time_Traveller]

Nicola Sturgeon sets a date and question for proposed Scottish independence referendum

Tuesday 28 June 2022

Nicola Sturgeon has set the date for a proposed "consultative referendum" next year on Scottish independence.

To cheers and applause in the devolved parliament in Holyrood, the first minister said legislation will lay out plans for a vote to take place on 19 October 2023.

It will ask the question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"

Ms Sturgeon acknowledged that her plan could face legal blocks or resistance from the UK government - and threatened that if so her party, the SNP, would fight the next general election as a "de facto referendum" instead.

The Scottish first minister said the Holyrood government had a "clear mandate" to go for another vote - after independence was rejected in a previous poll in 2014.

She said papers were being filed with the Supreme Court to seek to establish the lawfulness of her plans and that she was "ready and willing" to negotiate with the Westminster government on the terms of holding the referendum.

https://news.sky.com/story/nicola-sturg ... m-12641957

[Time_Traveller]

Police swoop on Stop Brexit Man under new anti-protest law

Tue 28 Jun 2022

The activist known as “Stop Brexit Man” has had equipment seized by police officers attempting to shut down his regular protest near parliament, as a new protest law came into force.

Steve Bray, a former coin dealer and failed Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate, posted videos on Twitter showing police officers approaching him near Parliament Square on Tuesday. His sound system was seized.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, which came into force on Tuesday, introduced an offence of intentionally or recklessly causing public nuisance, in an effort to crack down on disruptive guerrilla protests.

These are the sort of tactics that have been used by climate change protesters who have taken their campaigns to the streets. The Ministry of Justice said the police would be supported with new powers to tackle non-violent protests that have a significant disruptive effect on the public or on access to parliament.

Bray posted videos of himself setting up his protest on Tuesday morning, acknowledging he was doing so “despite police warnings”. He tweeted: “The police are harassing hell out of this protest today.”

The Metropolitan police have been approached for comment.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... rotest-law

[Time_Traveller]

Home Office to face legal challenge over post-Brexit rights of EU citizens in UK

Thu 30 Jun 2022

A statutory body set up to monitor EU citizens’ rights after Brexit has been granted permission for a judicial review of Home Office rules which impact up to 2.5 million European nationals living in the UK.

The Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA) applied to the high court to challenge a Home Office decision to remove the rights of people living in the UK for less than five years before Brexit if they do not apply in time for permanent residency status.

The rules mean they would be classed as undocumented migrants and lose their rights to reside, work, rent property or access services including the NHS. At worst, they could face deportation.

An EU flag flies outside the UK parliament in London.

The IMA argued the rules were a breach of the withdrawal agreement (WA) between the UK and the EU, which guaranteed the rights of EU citizens who were in the country before Brexit.

Allowing a judicial review, Mr Justice Saini said the IMA’s “case is plainly arguable”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... zens-in-uk

[Time_Traveller]

UK trade deal with Australia amounts to ‘offshoring’ pesticide use, MPs say

Thu 30 Jun 2022

The government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have said.

The international trade select committee in parliament has called for a vote on the deal, which would result in food produced below British domestic environmental standards being sold in the UK.

The SNP MP Angus MacNeil, who chairs the committee, said there was a risk that the deal would be rushed through without scrutiny by MPs, and that it amounted to “offshoring” pesticide use.

He told the Guardian: “There is no democratic input so far into the debate, and there will be pressure on government members to just push it through at the end of the month. We have asked that the time for approval be extended, that parliament gives us 21 more sitting days for parliamentarians to digest the report before ratification.

“As it stands, the UK could ratify this deal without any parliamentary vote whatsoever.”

The MP is calling for it to be put to a vote in parliament because “it is one of the most liberalising deals we’ve seen on agricultural standards”.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... ticide-mps

[Time_Traveller]

Johnson risks breakup of UK over Northern Ireland protocol, says Varadkar

Fri 1 Jul 2022

Leo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, has accused the British government of risking the break-up of the United Kingdom and making “shocking” blunders over Northern Ireland.

Varadkar said Boris Johnson’s administration had been undemocratic and disrespectful and tacitly accused it of being dishonest and dishonourable.

The tánaiste made the sharp attack in a BBC interview on Thursday night, days after the Northern Ireland protocol bill – which could override the Brexit deal – cleared its first hurdle in the House of Commons.

“I think that’s a strategic mistake for people who want to maintain the union because if you continue to impose things on Northern Ireland that a clear majority of people don’t want, that means more people will turn away from the union. It’s a peculiar policy coming from a government that purports to want to defend the union,” he said.

Varadkar, who is due to succeed Micheál Martin as taoiseach later this year, said he found it “shocking and hard to accept” that Downing Street sought unilaterally to change the protocol. “What the British government is doing now is very undemocratic and very disrespectful to people in Northern Ireland because it’s taking that power away from the assembly.”

Boris Johnson in profile seated in the back of a car taking him away from talks at Hillborough Castle in Northern Ireland

An honourable government would honour a treaty it had agreed and abide by international law, he said. “It is not normal for a democratic government in a respected country to sign a treaty and then try to pass domestic legislation to override it,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... o-varadkar

[wjfox]