A celebration of ‘our priceless sovereignty’

I was recently challenged by one of our local anti-brexit diehards to outline how our future will be brighter outside of the EU.

For all but its most blinkered apologists, the image of the EU Commission that immediately springs to mind is of an unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy located in Brussels, obsessed with its “ever closer political union” ideology.

This road map to political union is principally driven by seeking to impose ever more conformity by means of regulation. Inevitably this means imposing “one size fits all” regulations on all member states (and certain associate states) under the oversight of the European Court of Justice.

Brussels is infested with powerful lobby groups that seek to ensure that new regulations are tailored to suit the vested interests of the few rather than the best interests of the many.

The UK has been punctilious in

converting EU regulations into UK legislation and sometimes our conscientious civil servants have gold plated that translation process.

Additionally we, along with the Germans, have complied with those regulations when some other EU members turned a blind eye whenever politically convenient.

In a civilised and compassionate society, carefully crafted laws and regulations are essential tools for discouraging the strong from trampling over the weak. However, taken to excess they become counter-productively oppressive.

This is an obvious area for identifying new freedoms from inappropriate regulations imposed by a foreign power and for ensuring those that survive the purge are tailored to make the UK innovative and globally competitive without compromising societal and environmental imperatives .

All regulations, whether historic or newly proposed post Brexit, should meet a number of criteria to justify their retention/introduction.

1. Is it proportionate ?

2. Does it introduce such administrative complexity as to favour large businesses over small ones? (The larger businesses are better able to absorb the overheads and employ specialist compliance staff )

3. Do the societal and environmental benefits significantly outweigh any increased costs to business.

4. Does it inhibit fair competition (either domestically or globally) or innovation or entrepreneurial initiative?

5. Where there would be limited societal and environmental impact, can small businesses be exempt particularly if the regulation is directed at powerful large corporations?

6. Is it compatible with international agreements to which the UK is a signatory?

7. For an existing regulation under review, did it meet its original intention and were there any adverse unforeseen side effects?

I confidently expect that the above process would result in significantly less but much better targeted regulation and therefore a substantial net gain in societal, environmental and economic terms. Equally important, the process is a demonstration and celebration of our priceless, painfully repatriated, sovereignty.