In message , at 08:25:47 on
Fri, 11 Nov 2016, Optimist remarked:
On Thu, 10 Nov 2016 11:06:12 +0000, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 10:38:40 on
Thu, 10 Nov 2016, Optimist remarked:

I'll pick out a few of the worst howlers:

Legislation to remove EU competence (i.e. power) over UK affairs but
adopting current EU laws into
UK law so we can change, repeal or leave unchanged as required AFTER
we leave.

(1) Is that for EU Laws brought into force up to the day of exit, or
some other milestone. This isn't hypothetical, there's a huge Data
Protection shake-up due to be in force by May 2018. Which is just after
current predictions of Brexit. Assuming we do exit my April 2018, what
will the Data Protection law in the UK be in June 2018, given that if
it's the old law we won't be a "safe harbour" and many EU companies will
be in difficulty working through UK datacentres. Further to that, if we
brought the new law into force by March 2018 [there's no prohibition on
being early] what if there's a European Court ruling in 2020
'clarifying' what the law means, as has happened recently with the old
law and the so-called "Domestic Exemption"? Will we adopt the revised
law.

(2) What of the laws which provide for regulatory decisions to be made
by the EU equivalent of OFCOM[1], whatever the Monopolies Commission is
called this week, and so on? What if the laws have other pan-European
aspects, like the ones on Copyright and Patents.

[1] eg Will UK mobile phone companies have to abide by EU decisions on
roaming costs.

The government is putting this into the so-called Great Repeal Bill
being prepared by David Davis's department so I'm sure they will be
able to answer your questions.

The question was more for yourself, to make you think about the
complexities of the situation. I doubt if the Great Repeal Bill will go
into the level of detail above, for the hundreds of Directives which
will need considering.

Inform the EU we are leaving on a particular date and say we intend
to carry on trading with the EU
tariff-free as long as the other countries reciprocate.

You can inform until you are blue in the teeth. They can ignore us.

OK, so WTO/MFN trading then. German car workers who will lose their
jobs as a result won't be pleased.

The Brexit deal will not be crafted around the desires of thousands of
special interest groups within the 27 member states.

But if it were, you might find German car workers get more jobs building
cars for sale in Europe when Jaguar and Land Rover get priced out of the
market; or perhaps Jaguar and Land Rover will move their factories to
the mainland, again bringing more jobs.

EU governments are unlikely to refuse as adopting WTO/MFN rules would
damage their businesses far more than ours

That strategy's not working so well with UK & India.

New trade deals are being discussed now.

And the results may be known in ten years time.

(German businesses in particular are lobbying to maintain tariff-free
access to their
biggest market). We will no longer obliged to pay into the EU
budget, so that will save us about
£10 billion a year net,

Chicken feed compared to the financial benefits of the single market.

We will still be able to trade with EU as they will wish to carry on
trading with us. So the details will be negotiated, with WTO/MFN as
the fallback.

No-one is saying we won't able to trade, but the outcome (if we leave
the single market in any sense) will be tariffs and barriers which will
hurt us more than them.

and FTAs with non-EU countries will give us access to cheaper imports.

After a decade of negotiations.

Rubbish, many countries want deals with us. Some have abandoned
attempts to get agreements with EU and are turning to UK instead.

Most of those are wishful thinking talked up by Brexiters. And the
timescale is considerable.

I do admit that many did vote divorce to become self-governing again.

I am old enough to remember politics before we went into the EC.
Contrary to the alarmist reports
of some, we had human rights, equal pay, maternity pay etc. We had a
health service (the NHS came
into existence when I was a few months old).

Yes, but a great deal of today's consumer/employee protection has been
added on top of that rather low base by the EU.

No-one is saying we get rid of everything the EU introduced - some of
it undoubtedly UK policy. It just means that UK will be responsible in
the future.

It'll be interesting to see how Westminster deals with the workload,
when so much new legislation will have to be fought out locally hand-to-
hand, rather than rubber-stamping something from Brussels.

our own regional policy (no need for regions to lobby in Brussels
against each other for a small slice of the money we pay into the EU)

It's far easier to get that sort of money from the EU than from
Westminster.

But Westminster will have more money (see above).

But more difficult to extract money from. EU grants are a bit like
applying for a mortgage, you have to present a financial case and tick
all the boxes. The money then arrive relatively painlessly. In
Westminster they'll also be asking you "why exactly do you need four
bedrooms and what's wrong with your current house".
--
Roland Perry