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All Them Rules Innit

Vote Leave claimed that the EU forced 72 laws on the UK. In a long twitter thread, Jim Grace took a look at these rules.

The commons library looked at how many UK laws were influenced by EU laws. https://t.co/jTb6CQU2mx
4,514 out of 34,105.
And out of the EU laws that influenced the 4,514 ….Vote Leave discovered 72 that were forced on us against our will. 72! https://t.co/EqZXZBruBM
pic.twitter.com/gdNWUcTgRd

— Jim Grace #FBPE (@mac_puck) January 21, 2019

Full thread of Jim Grace’s tweet:

Brace for mega thread on “ALL THEM RULES INNIT” There is a type of of brexiter who is motivated not by xenophobia, or Empire nostalgia, or buccaneering trade fantasies, but instead by “all them EU rules”. Sadly they can never name a single one. So I have done some research…

The commons library looked at how many UK laws were influenced by EU laws. http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP10-62/RP10-62.pdf … 4,514 out of 34,105. And out of the EU laws that influenced the 4,514 ….Vote Leave discovered 72 that were forced on us against our will. 72! https://gallery.mailchimp.com/1026e6b00f73284a7e46eb046/files/20151009_UK_influence.pdf#page=5

So… what inequities were forced upon us, what degradation, what humiliations for a proud island nation?
Let’s have a little look shall we?
I have put a link to each law we voted “no” to… and my own TLDR, if you don’t fancy wading through the legalese….

(1/72) 29/03/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:31996L0021 …
EU: Food labels should say if Aspartine is present.
UK: Nonsense. Bloody red tape!

(Linked to cancer, headaches and seizures, even Pepsi USA stopped using it by 2015)
(2/72) 29/04/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:01996L0022-20081218&from=IT
EU: Ban on livestock growth-boosters with hormonal, thyrostatic or beta-agonist effects (carcinogenic residue in meat).
UK: Aw come on – a little bit of cancer never hurt no-one.

(3/72) 03/06/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31996L0035&from=EN
EU: Safety advisers dealing with transport of dangerous goods on public roads etc must be properly trained and regulated.
UK: Bleedin elf’n’safety gorn mad. Wassamatta wiv a bit a toxic spillage across a playground?

(4/72) 27/06/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31996R1168
EU: we need some conservation measures to preserve North Atlantic fish stocks.
UK: Ah Phooey. There’s plenty o’ fish in the sea. We’ve even registered on the website.

(5/72) 22/07/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:31996L0070
EU: additives to mineral water must be safe and labels must be honest (eg “spring water” has to come from an actual spring)
UK: This will kill our sales of Dell-boy Trotter’s “Peckham Spring Water”.

(6/72) 24/09/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31996L0071&rid=2
EU: posted workers must be given the same pay and conditions as local workers.
UK: You’re kidding! The whole POINT of posted workers is to undercut the locals and undermine their employment rights.

(7/72) 09/12/1996 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31996D0715
EU: lets have a consistent approach to data collection on goods traded between member states?
UK: Hmm. That buggers up our carousel fraud schemes, somewhat.

(8/72) 17/03/1997 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:31997L0012
EU: Lets tighten up on livestock health checks, paperwork and traceability.
UK: God, you’re not still pissed about that mad cow thing? IT’S SORTED! Twust us – we’s Bwitish.

( Soon after: 10M animals slaughtered during foot and mouth)

(9 & 10/72) 22/04/1997 & 26/06/1997 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=OJ:L:1997:106:TOC
EU: We still need to protect those fish stocks.
UK: Aww. Cant we just keep fishin’? There are so few left, we want to catch as many as we can before they are ALL gone.

(11/72) 22/07/97 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:01997R1554-19970805
EU: OK folks: lets have a single set of rules about drying, powdering and labelling hops – instead of everyone making it up as they go along.
UK: We LIKE making it up as we go along. (Hopping mad now)

(12/72) 20/10/1997 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31997R2087&from=en
EU: Don’t add tartaric acid to wine. And here’s how tariffs on grapejuice from 3rd countries should be calculated.
UK: We LIKE adding dodgy things to wine. And the French, Spanish and Italian winemakers should do what WE say!

(13/72) 11/12/1997 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:31997R2087&from=en
EU: firms from outside the EU may carry passengers between destinations in the EU (cabbotage) without needing a registered office in the EU.
UK (1997): Not happy.
UK (2021): Splendid idea.

(14/72) 16/12/1997 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31997R2536
EU: Lamb and sheep meat to be classified in a consistent way as soon as possible after slaughter.
UK: That violates the English common law principle: “you may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb”

(15/72) 16/02/1998 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:31998R0411
EU: Trucks for livestock journeys over 8 hours must have bedding, feed, water, ventilation, partitions and access for inspectors.
UK: Why spend all that money? Innit all just meat on the plate at the end of the day?

(16/72) 18/05/1998 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A31998R1048
EU: This is a Gas turbine/nomenclature/tariff/temporary partial thingy-me-wotsit.
UK: If that’s not worth dying in a ditch for, I don’t know what is.

(17/72) 19/06/2000 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32000R1363&from=EN
EU: We are going to intervene in the sugar market to create price stability and protect farm incomes.
UK: We don’t like it. (Be really cool if you reformed this system in, ooh say, 2006…)

(18/72) 04/12/2000 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32000R2699&from=EN
EU: These are our proposed subsidies for fruit and veg growers.
UK: We don’t like fruit and veg… can you subsidise laxitives and Anusol instead?

(19/72) 29/01/2001 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/GA/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32001R0216
EU: Let’s increase the tonnage of bananas we take from ACP countries at the lower tariff rates?
UK: NEVER! You may take our blue passports, but you will never get your hands on our BANANANANANANANAS!

(20/72) 19/12/2001 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:51999PC0744
EU: After the mad cow thing and the dioxin thing… maybe we should tighten up on compound feed and how it is labelled?
UK: Knee-jerk regulation is the wrong mooooohve.

(21/72) 27/06/2002 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32002R1177
EU: South Korean State Aid for shipyards is undercutting our yards on LNG tankers; time for countermeasures.
UK: We couldn’t care less about Danish shipyards; Thatcher destroyed all of the UK’s about twenty years ago.

(22/72) 27/02/2003 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2001:0283:FIN
EU: we must ban the advertising of tobacco products in printed media, radio, TV, events sponsorship etc.
UK: just hang on a mo’ – there’s good money in those deathsticks, you know.

(23/72) 03/06/2003 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32003D1152
EU: we must set up an EU-wide computer system to combat evasion of excise duty on booze etc.
UK: but we like evading taxes…

(24 & 25 /72) 22/07/2003 http://assets.panda.org/downloads/gmosadangertosustainableagriculture.pdf
EU: Proper labelling of food that uses genetically modified ingredients – so consumers can decide not to buy them if they are worried.
UK: Bugger consumers! What they don’t know won’t harm ’em”

(26/72) 26/01/20014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004R0261:EN:HTML
EU: airlines should compensate passengers for delayed or cancelled flights.
UK: we don’t support this proposal because …um…because…we are just utter, utter bastards.

(27/72) 28/02/2005 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32005R0374 …
EU: In 2000 we dropped sugar tariffs for some Balkans countries and we want to row that back a bit now.
UK: NO! (We’re sweet enough…)

(28/72) 07/05/2007 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Refugee_Fund
EU: Greece Italy and Spain are bearing disproportionate costs housing asylum seekers – everyone should chip in to help them?
UK: Sod the Greeks! They shouldnt have put their country so close to the Middle East.

(29/72) 07/05/2007 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:52011DC0858
EU: OK can you chip in to funding a programme to help asylum seekers return home?
UK: You ‘avin a giraffe, mate?

(30/72) 23/05/2007 Solidarity and management of migration flows
EU: Another whip-round needed; to help member States in receiving, and in bearing the consequences of receiving, refugees and displaced persons.
UK: Why should WE help? A friend in need… can sod off!

(31/72) 30/05/2007 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32007R0715
EU: Common standard for emissions testing and what maintenance information vehicle manufacturers should provide.
UK: Aw – do we have to? I mean…air polution only kills 36,000 in the UK each year. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/lsm/schools/population-health-and-environmental-sciences/newsrecords/air-pollution-could-cause-36000-deaths-a-year-in-the-uk.aspx …

(32/72) 24/09/2009 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32009R1107
EU: no pesticides that are; carcinogenic, mutagenic, toxic to reproduction, sensitising chemicals, very toxic, explosive or corrosive.
UK: EU spoil sports!

(33/72) 14/12/2010 https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/f67f2a21-c752-11e1-b84a-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
EU: we need rule changes to allow us to do development type stuff with middle-income countries (eg China, India & various states that don’t meet the OECD criteria for “Official Development Assistance”)
UK “no” 1st reading & “Yes” 2nd

(34/72) 17/05/2011 https://oeilm.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil-mobile/summary/1148778?t=d&l=en
EU: There’s a potential period of legal limbo between the expiry of current fisheries legal framework and start of the next one. We need a temp. extension to cover the gap.
UK: (“Fish? FISH? – ‘ad their chips, their chips, hawhawhaw!”)

(35/72) 12/09/2011 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/LSU/?uri=CELEX%3A32011R1077
EU: Lets create a new agency, eu-LISA, to ensure 24/7 resilience in the IT systems that keep our borders safe (asylum database, visa database, security, fingerprints, criminals).
UK: We LIKE being flooded with crim’s and asylum seekers.

(36/72) 27/10/2011
Apparently we voted against the EU budget for 2012.
Except this https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-16201-2011-INIT/en/pdf … says we voted FOR.
Whatevs.

(37/72) 30/11/2011 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236119/8232.pdf
EU: We need a 5% increase in budget.
UK (and NL): No not a penny more!
EU: OK. How about no real terms increase, just inflationary uplift?
UK: Still not happy!
EU: Soz.

(38/72) 14/02/2012 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A7-2012-0032&language=EN
EU: We’ve funded food banks since 1987. 13M people rely on them. Then SOMEONE blocked our budget increase last year. Can’t we keep the funding going for another 12 months?
UK: NO! Let the plebs starve; the very sight of them affronts us.

(39/72) 09/03/2012 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32013D0258
EU: The European Refugee Fund needs more dosh, to help those countries that are bearing the brunt.
UK: Having taken moral and ethical advice from Voldemort, Sauron and Satan himself, our view is: TOUGH SHIT!

(40/72) 26/07/2012 EU: We need more cash. https://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/the-uk-and-the-eu-budget-the-facts/
EU: Our budget was 1.2% of members’ total GDP 10 years ago – now it’s 1%. Come on, members? (your national budgets have all INCREASED as a %ge of GDP).
UK: Not a penny. & everything is your fault, & we hate you.

(41/72) 08/10/2012 http://register.consilium.europa.eu/doc/srv?l=EN&f=ST%2010090%202012%20REV%202
EU: The Maritime Safety Agency needs re-organising & more muscle to punish oil spills from ships and oil rigs.
UK: (Gulp! Probs OUR oil rigs.) WE OPPOSE!

(42/72) 21/11/2012
EU: We need a bit more money – really.
UK: We don’t care. This is an opportunity to grandstand for our euroskeptic electorate over really tiny amounts of money.

(43/72) 10/12/2012
EU: We need about £0.4Bn for 2012 (Or 4 DUP MP’s, if you prefer)
UK: We don’t care. This is ANOTHER opportunity to grandstand for our euroskeptic electorate over really tiny amounts of money.

(44/72) 12/12/2012
EU: OK we have trimmed it by about 10%.
UK. Still don’t care!

(45/72) 26/02/2013 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32013R0228
EU: Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira etc are struggling due to their remoteness. Lets help them?
UK: Tough titty – their fault for being so remote. Can’t they be tax havens like Cayman and BVI?

(46 & 47/72 ) 24/06/2013 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32013R0575
EU: We need prudential supervision of credit institutions and investment firms so that stuff like Lehman’s and the 2008 crash don’t happen again.
UK: Oh don’t worry. If the bankers go bust again, taxpayers will bail em out.

(50/72) 10/10/2013 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32013R1023
EU: we want to make some changes to the employment contract for EU staff.
UK: they’re your staff – do what you wan….Wait! We oppose! (Dunno why….)

(51,52,53) More pointless budget grandstanding.

(54/72) 12/02/2014 https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-6418-2014-INIT/en/pdf
EU: Fund our Hercule III programme to combat irregularities, fraud and corruption affecting the EU budget.
UK: Er…anti-fraud you say…hmm… WE OPPOSE! (Soz.. just got to pop out and make a call…)

(55/72) 11/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=celex:32014R0223
EU: Let’s provide funds for the most deprived – these people are really suffering.
UK: Hey! We have been deliberately CAUSING deprivation with our austerity programme – now you want to undo all that work! WTF?

(56/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0236
EU: we need to agree rules for funding stuff like development, democracy, human rights, European Neighbourhood.
UK: every one of those things is anathema to us.

(57/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32014R0230
EU: We want to establish an instrument to fund stability and peace in countries.
UK: Stability and peace?! Wipe me arse with them.

(58/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0235
EU: Lets establish a financing instrument for the promotion of democracy and human rights around the world.
UK: Sod off! Lets establish an instrument to wipe out democracy and human rights in the UK. Call it “Brexit”.

(59/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2014.077.01.0077.01.ENG
EU: Lets establish an instrument for co-operation with 3rd countries.
UK: Co-operate on THIS, mofo!

(60/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014R0233
EU: Lets establish an instrument for development cooperation.
UK: Development. Cooperation. Aid. These words make our skin burn.

(61/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0232
EU: Measures to reduce poverty, promote development, trade, education and science in countries that border the EU?
UK: SOD DEVELOPMENT! SOD TRADE! SOD EDUCATION, SOD SCIENCE AND SOD ALLEVIATING SODDING POVERTY!

(62/72) 12/03/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32014R0231
EU: Help for pre-accession countries to get ready for joining the EU.
UK: SOD THE SODDING PRE-ACCESSION COUNTRIES! SOD ‘EM TO HELL AND BACK!!

(63/72) 16/04/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A32014L0054
EU: Measures to give FOM workers protection from exploitation.
UK: But we WANT to exploit FOM workers – it helps keep our UK-born workers under the thumb.

(64/72) 16/04/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0423
EU: Boring bit of housekeeping re staff pensions, let’s hope no eejit takes this as an opportunity for pointless, immature, grandstanding.
UK: Someone mention my name?

(65/72) 16/04/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R0422
EU: Same again re staff pensions, let’s hope that eejit feels he’s made his point already.
UK: Do you ever get that feeling of déjà vu?

(66 & 67 /72) 30/09/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32014R1141
EU: Now (Cameron) no political donations from dodgy Russians, Criminals or organised bicycle-seat sniffers. Farage? stop spunking your expense account on “other stuff”!
UK: Hey! political corruption is an UK tradition, immemorial.

(68/72) 13/10/2014 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2014/1144/oj
EU: Enhanced labelling for EU Agricultural products; not just nutritional info, but also food safety, traceability, authenticity, health, animal welfare, environment, sustainability.
UK: Less information consumers get, happier we’ll be.

(69/72) More budget grandstanding for the Mail readers.

(70/72) 05/03/2015 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:32015R0759
EU: These measures will protect National Statistical Authorities from interference by their National Governments.
UK: You think? Hahaha – one day we will put Rory Stewart in charge.

(71/72) 05/03/2015 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32015R0758
EU: Some rules about type approval of e-Call systems (they automatically call 999 in a car crash)
UK: More Euro-bollocks. Wouldn’t have saved Diana, hawhawhaw.

(72/72) 23/06/2015 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52015PC0569
EU: The CJEU needs more judges to deal with a big backlog of cases.
UK: But we LIKE cases to wait ages. It means only the wealthy – who can afford to wait – can get justice.

This Week’s Mad Balloon

They want a bilateral treaty dealing with the border so that the backstop can be removed from the WA…https://t.co/jGnyGWdJUJ

— Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke (@kevinhorourke) January 20, 2019

 thetimes.co.uk

 

Complete thread of Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke’s tweet:

They want a bilateral treaty dealing with the border so that the backstop can be removed from the WA…

It’s already been rejected so it isn’t newsworthy in the sense that we may be headed there. But that something so impossible has been considered by HMG at this late stage tells us something about HMG.

One interpretation is that they still don’t understand the issues. The only way to avoid a border is to have a backstop arrangement either for NI or for the U.K. as a whole. And since that involved NI/UK being part of the EU CU and in bits of its SM this is not in Ireland’s gift.

Pretty obviously the EU has an interest in who is a member of its CU and bits of its SM, and the conditions attaching to this, and so pretty obviously this is a deal that the EU would have to be party to. And pretty obviously the deal would be identical to the backstop.

So maybe this story tells us that HMG is not the quickest of learners. Or maybe it tells us something else. How would this idea be sold to MPs you wonder? I can think of 2 ways.
1. This will be us negotiating with the Irish and we are more powerful than them so we can shaft them
2. This will be a treaty with the Irish so the consequences of reneging on it will be less — for example, it won’t involve the U.K. immediately crashing out of the WA as a whole with all of the turbulence that this would imply.

Whether you think that this week’s mad balloon reflects ignorance of the issues, or a desire to restore the traditional balance of power vis à vis Ireland (and perhaps you don’t have to choose) it is a classic example of why, from the Irish & EU perspective, a backstop is needed.

Because let’s face it, you can’t trust this lot.

The WALL, a Mnemonic Device

Polarize. Divide and rule. The cartoonist @MarianKamensky1 explains how Trump did it: pic.twitter.com/sYItrq5ia9

— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) January 25, 2019

Don’t forget, we are building and renovating big sections of Wall right now. Moving quickly, and will cost far less than previous politicians thought possible. Building, after all, is what I do best, even when money is not readily available!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2019

 


 more
 

In other words—the “wall” was originally cooked up as a trick to use the candidate’s narcissism (“I am the greatest builder!”)to get him to talk about immigration policy.

Virtually *everything* about this man and his “presidency” can be understood through his narcissism.

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) January 6, 2019

 

Once built, the wall would become boring. In 2014, Trump's spin doctors set the wall on the agenda so that Trump can focus on a simple issue for simple minds. As intended, the Dems proudly got caught in that trap.

More: https://t.co/Q9hwGH3AMA

cc: @jahimes

— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) January 21, 2019

Looking Forward to Meeting with Chairman Kim at End of February!

https://t.co/wzQ27eRgLe

— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) January 21, 2019

pic.twitter.com/aNpKsKeXL5

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 21, 2019

US think tank identifies 13 undeclared missile bases in North Korea https://t.co/yOGyDuWnM9 pic.twitter.com/mNJ9sn1hEh

— Forever Logical 🖖 (@ForeverLogical) January 20, 2019

 more

Standing on an Empire

She is England! Storms pass before the radiant power of her majesty! Ah, the glorious Ditchley Portrait of Elizabeth I, painted by Marcus Gheeraerts in 1592. Today is his day. pic.twitter.com/ohFb5d2OfI

— Peter Paul Rubens (@PP_Rubens) January 19, 2019

On the front cover the outlook wasn't that bad.
But in the end the Snark was a Boojum. pic.twitter.com/lUD6dcvJgI

— Goetz Kluge (@Bonnetmaker) November 23, 2018

 more

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