The Brexit Chronicles

Lest We Forget...

Published on December the 9th, 2018.

Despite the accusations of some who would have the UK remain bound to the EU, the idea of Brexiting isn't an exclusive ideological obsession of the Right; there are practical reasons for escaping its clutches as well. The bloc has insinuated its unwelcome way into so many aspects of our lives that we take it for granted, if the intrusions are noticed at all. They are so numerous they defy listing; so instead I'll note the examples that stand out to me.

The most personal effect the EU has had on my life was it's decision to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs. Rather than allow consumers the choice of incandescent, CFL, or LED bulbs, Brussels arbitrarily took it upon itself to dictate how our homes should be lit, decreeing the high power incandescent bulbs I as a visually impaired person rely on to see by were verboten.
My response was to stockpile as many of the 'illegal' bulbs as I could lay my hands on while I could still obtain then. I still have many of them now, but with each soft metallic ping! and fading into darkness as a filament expires, another of my hoard is diminished and my right to the light I choose to use most appropriate to my needs visibly decreases.

Oh, I've still got some left though; but I wonder how long it will be before even the mere possession of such a once innocuous item as the 'wrong' type of bulb is considered criminal in itself, with searches for and confiscation of the 'offending' items the remedy? Anyone planning such a measure should be warned that if they try so on me I'll take a great deal of sadistic pleasure in thrusting my symbol cane sideways well up one of their orifices; way in there where the rays of the sun won't reach. Grave faced surgeons will slowly shake their heads and declare its gone so deep there's no way of ever removing it... Do I sound bitter and angry? That's because I am.

EU regulations also impinged upon the packaging industry I worked in during the 1990s. As part of the 'waste reduction' regulations, each item in the company's broad range of often bespoke products had to be assessed for the amount of materials used in its construction - including an estimate of the weight of the brown adhesive tape used to seal the outer cartons closed! Needless to say the idea was treated with the derision it deserved by the factory staff, with figures simply conjured from thin air written on the certificates of conformity, which were in turn passed along the supply chain to be filed somewhere, no doubt in due course to end up in the same Chinese landfill as the rest of the packaging.

Such ridiculous regulations weren't solely to blame for the problems experienced by UK manufacturers, but they certainly didn't help. However, since then the EU has become even more interfering with aspects of life which it should have no right to meddle in, for example its attempt to regulate the internet via
Article 13, (Details here https://saveyourinternet.eu/ ) or the botched GPDR legislation which is responsible for those irritating cookie consent pop-up windows which now appear whenever you visit a website. Data protection and online confidentiality are indeed important issues, but there are already browsers available with which the user can decide if at all or how much information they are willing to share.
As a result of this badly thought through law I now often find myself prevented from accessing non-compliant US websites, a block which can be circumvented by use of a location shifting VPN, but it is another Brussels imposed inconvenience we could happily live without.
Meanwhile the two greatest (US based) data miners, Facebook and Google, go about their creepy business unaffected.

And yet, despite the problems it causes there are still people who would cleave to the EU no matter what. Unfortunately our parliament is full of them. It must be a combination of Stockholm Syndrome and naked self-interest which motivates them, but they must not be allowed to frustrate our will. We the people have had our 'meaningful vote' back in 2016; our mandate to them was to arrange the UK's departure from the bloc. If our government, and particularly the Prime Minister have failed to perform the duties we set them then the problem lies not with the idea of Brexit, but with those entrusted to see it through. There are nations where any official who set out to waste two years and engage in such deliberate sabotage of the process as Theresa May has done would be facing a firing squad by now: Unfortunately the UK isn't one of them.

During the turbulent days to come and despite the welter of subtly persuasive arguments to the contrary, bear in mind that we can still throw off the leaden blanket of the EU provided we don't allow Project Fear to monopolise the debate. Shaking off the Brussels bureaucracy would be a shining act of self-determination, and the beginning of a national renaissance. It is a step we have already chosen to take, so let's boldly see it through. If we let this chance slip through our grasp we won't ever get another opportunity.