Labour’s King’s Speech indicates its intentions with the Windsor Framework….

Ben M is a slugger reader from Dublin:

Keir Starmer hasn’t wasted much time breaking with the Brexit past.  The King’s Speech last week introduced the Product Safety and Metrology Bill, allowing government ministers to follow European regulations as they’re brought in, without reference to Parliament.

As Niall Ó Conghaile writing in the East Anglia Bylines says – “Between directives, regulations and decisions, there are very roughly 2,000 legal changes to the single market each year (figures can vary greatly). Even in the event that a British government did not choose to diverge from European standards through legislation, these new provisions would bring passive divergence to the UK, as EU law changed and UK law didn’t follow. Over time, British producers would find themselves dealing with two different sets of regulations, with different production lines and associated costs. This Act will avoid that. (Exporters would still need to prove that products meet European standards when they enter the European single market.)”

Back in the pre-Labour olden days, all this would have been met with talk of vassalage and sovereignty. No doubt should the bill be debated and become law, we’ll hear of it once more from the Tory’s depleted ranks. Labour has five years before they’ll have to face an electorate again, and may conclude such talk will repel and bore all but the Brexit faithful if it’s still the Tory’s message in 2029.

In Northern Ireland, it presents Unionist parties with a dilemma. There is still some talk of eliminating the Windsor Framework, but all but the most stalwart of TUV true believers must know that idea is fantasy. Now we have something that shows us Labour’s likely attitude to the EU and Unionism. Bridge-building with the former, and harsh truths for the latter. For Unionists, Labour will have some sugar with the medicine. It will offer a plan to reduce the Windsor Framework over time by gradually aligning Britain with the EU Single Market as NI already is.

The DUP now faces a dilemma. Will they spend the coming years in an ever more doomed attempt to eliminate the Windsor Framework, or come around to accepting reality? Will they do it sooner rather than later? The DUP electorate were NI’s Brexit faithful. Already betrayed by the Tories with an Irish Sea border, they will have to face another betrayal – their own party agreeing with Labour that Brexit was all a big mistake to start with, that they will now start to reverse.

https://eastangliabylines.co.uk/news/brexit/labours-quiet-move-to-ease-eu-trade-friction/

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