Daily Archives: January 3, 2022

The slump in school trips to the UK described in your article does not surprise me at all (Almost unsaleable: slump in school trips to UK blamed on Brexit, 26 December). Im an English teacher at a German secondary school, and in 2022 I have to take my A-level English class on a week-long trip. In the past 12 years Ive always taken them to England. We spent a lot of money on those trips: four nights in a hotel, meals, theatre visits, guided tours, plus the money the students would spend on food and shopping. It was always possible to go to the UK because, it being a school trip, I could take all the students, even the ones with a non-European passport.

However, this has now changed. Some of our students have a non-European passport (we have students from Russia, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia). These students would have to apply for a visa and pay the fees. Or stay at home. Neither is an option for our school. So, with a somewhat heavy heart, I booked a trip to Dublin. Karen BrandesCologne, Germany

The challenges posed by the post-Brexit regulations for educational trips from the EU to the UK, which have led to the collapse in bookings, are obviously of economic significance for this segment of the travel industry. However, the effects are much more far-reaching, as Morag Anderson suggests in your article.

As a former secondary school teacher, I organised yearly trips from Cologne to Canterbury, which encouraged students to use their language skills and to learn about British culture. The trips to the UK helped to compensate for the fact that exchanges between German and English schools were becoming more difficult to organise, as fewer UK students were learning German. Now students travel elsewhere to Italy or Austria, for example.

At university level, the Erasmus programme has been cancelled post-Brexit, and its replacement, the Turing scheme which in any case is not focused on European exchange has been taken out of the competent hands of the British Council.

Boris Johnson often speaks of our European friends, but European friendship and understanding depend, among other things, on language competence and dialogue. Young people must be given this chance from an early age. Words alone are meaningless.Brigid HoffmannCologne, Germany

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Loss of school trips to the UK has been a Brexit tragedy - The Guardian

ACCORDING to No 10, Brexit benefits include the Crown sign now restored to pint beer glasses!

Lets all raise a glass and cheer as businesses drop, exports to the EU collapse and key food imports are held up with added costs, paperwork delays and IT glitches.

The trade deals by Global Britain, aka England, globally touted by Truss are simply EU deals rolled over.

READ MORE:Boris Johnson hails return of pounds and ounces as 'key success' of Brexit

Deluded punters who voted for Brexit in Wales and England will rue the day!

The farming and fishing fraternity, so courted by the landed Tory aristos, are in for a shock! Still, they can drown their sorrows by saluting the Crown on their pint glass and welcome all the benefits the Crown receives when the palace gains exemptions from laws passed in our legislatures after it exercises its absolute scrutiny and opt out.

John EdgarKilmaurs

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Will Brexit voters say cheers to royal pints as exports to the EU collapse? - The National

As Welsh towns go Holyhead has had to reckon with more upheaval than most.

The largest town on the Isle of Anglesey is home to just over 10,000 people but is also one of the UK's largest commercial and ferry ports with millions of heavy goods vehicles, trucks, and tourists passing through every year.

The success of the port, which has existed in some form since 1821, is worth millions of pounds and supplies hundreds of jobs in a region which has seen deprivation levels rise. But one year on from Brexit traffic figures are worrying.

Stena Line has said trade is down 30% at its Welsh ports, which it owns and operates. In December 2020 traders and business figures in Holyhead spoke about the chaos as the hours ticked away until the UK officially left the EU.

Read more: The startling impact of 'taking back control' on the port at the frontline of Brexit in Wales

One year on much seems still unclear. The UK is embroiled in fraught negotiations over post-Brexit arrangements for Northern Ireland while the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made the impact of Brexit on Holyhead difficult to measure.

Dale Fleming runs the Chester Inn pub in the town and said his business had been hit hard by the pandemic.

"Business hadn't been too good but it picked up again when I took down the plastic [Covid-19] screens," he said, adding that fewer people had been coming in again since the Welsh Government introduced restrictions to combat the Omicron variant.

"When they closed us down last time it was so complicated I lost all my beer so I had to start again."

Mr Fleming said he thought traffic through the port had picked up since 2020.

"With duty free coming back again it has picked up a lot from the Welsh side," he said. "I'm not sure about the Irish side.

"I think people have moved on [from Brexit]. They don't talk about it anymore. They are looking to the future, not looking back."

He said that, similarly to the pandemic, Brexit was something "we've got to live with and get on with it".

Michele Bradford runs a holiday apartment on the marina in Holyhead. She said business had been "really good" in 2021 but had not reached either pre-Brexit or pre-pandemic levels.

"We had a really good summer but it wasn't as good as the previous summer when we re-opened after lockdown that was brilliant," she said. "We are nowhere near where we were before Brexit or the pandemic."

Michele said she had noticed certain trends in the last 12 months. "We have had less people travelling to and from Dublin. We used to get a lot of them."

She added that while she had anticipated an uptick in customers due to the return of the Dublin-Holyhead return shopping 'booze cruise' that comes with cheaper on-board shopping she said they had "got nothing".

Michele said she didn't feel freight traffic through Holyhead port had taken a hit in the past year either.

"When there was the storm in December the town was full of lorries. I don't think [Brexit] is having a negative effect.

"The whole town was up in arms because they were parking anywhere they could because they don't have RoadKing anymore."

After years of political wrangling plans to turn the RoadKing unit at Parc Cybi, previously Holyhead's main truck stop, into a customs facility were submitted by the UK government in November.

Operating 24 hours a day and seven days a week it's expected that the facility would process up to 350 HGVs over a 24-hour period.

Amid fears over 24 job losses at the site HMRC has said it expects the development to create 390 temporary jobs during construction and another 175 permanent roles.

Rhun ap Iorwerth MS represents Anglesey in the Senedd. He said the problems caused by losing RoadKing and "lack of settled truck-stopping facilities" in Holyhead needed to be addressed in order to avoid trucks parking all over the town.

"I'm pushing hard for that to be resolved and I think it will but that has been directly borne out of Brexit," he said.

"RoadKing selling to HMRC was very much helped by the fact they saw such a cliff-edge drop-off in business at the truck stop. It was a no-brainer for them."

Other traders in the town, like Helen Evans, have moved out of the town altogether. Helen ran LL65 Emporium in Holyhead for almost 10 years before moving in October, opening a new artisan craft shop and gallery space in nearby Amlwch.

She insisted that her decision to leave Holyhead was not based on fears over the town's future. "One of the problems is people have got into the habit of going to the bigger shops while the small ones have been shut during the pandemic," she said.

"We have suffered as a whole. I think that's something that will take a while to change. I still had some very loyal customers [in Holyhead] but some of the regulars I've not seen this year. But I still had some lovely messages when I left.

"I did not leave because it wasn't doing well. I just got an offer on a good little shop."

Helen believes Holyhead will "always be busy" citing the fact that someone has already offered to take her old unit there.

"As I was finishing there seemed to always be trucks and passengers coming through. There's so much motivation in Holyhead. We as businesses have all kept in touch.

"There's always going to be change it's that sort of town. Time will tell with tourists going through on the ferry. I think cheap offers on the ferries would make a big difference."

But she admitted the port remains "essential" to the future of the town: "Hopefully the cruise ships will come back. That would be great."

Michele Bradford said the town itself had yet to show any improvement since the UK left the EU. "More money needs to be put into the town instead of going down south," she said.

"I get comments from my guests and it's always about how the apartment was lovely but it's a shame about the town being so run-down. It's all politics. There needs to be investment the town looks grey and miserable."

Irish Maritime Development Office figures show trade from Dublin to Holyhead and Liverpool was down 19% this year (compared to 2020) and 30% on the two routes from Rosslare in south-east Ireland to the Welsh ports of Pembroke and Fishguard.

Meanwhile trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain was up 17% and direct freight trade between Ireland and the rest of EU up 50%.

Ian Davies, head of UK ports at Stena Line, explained that there was a huge surge in freight trade through Welsh ports due to stockpiling pre-Brexit before it "fell of a cliff" on January 1, 2021.

"The first two weeks we were down 70% and by about four or five months in we were about 30% down and that's where we seem to have plateaued. They haven't really improved from that point."

Mr Davies said there had been a big rise in traffic from Ireland to France, which was 300% up compared to 2019, as well as increased traffic going directly from Northern Ireland to Liverpool.

"Traffic driving from Northern Ireland to Dublin to come to Holyhead represented about 25% of what was going through Holyhead and we've lost virtually all of that. It's the longer, more expensive route but there's a lot less paperwork."

Mr Davies added that across all Stena Line's routes around Europe figures were up compared to 2019 except on Ireland-Wales routes.

He said 2021 had been "the perfect storm" with both freight and tourism affected by the pandemic.

He said the UK's decision to delay checks on goods coming from Ireland to Britain, announced in December, was welcome but that clarity was needed on the Northern Ireland protocol an element of Brexit which agreed that Northern Ireland would continue to follow EU rules on product standards but which has been the subject of major negotiations in recent months.

He also said the Common Transit Convention, which is used to ease the movement of goods between or through any common transit countries, needed to be modernised as it was hampering freight trade.

"I think more of it will start to come back people get used to systems and processes," he said, adding that Stena Line were "very much committed" to its Welsh ports in the long term.

"We will without doubt be down from where we were. It's not going to be an overnight fix.

"We took a huge hit when the economic crisis happened in 2007 and 2008. It took four or five years to come back.

"It's not great in the short term but the market goes through economic cycles."

Mr ap Iorwerth said the continued downturn in trade through Holyhead port was "worrying".

"Every lorry or bit of cargo reflects jobs and the vibrancy of the port of Holyhead. It's a hugely important employer and you don't want to see that happening."

He said hearing government ministers and advisers saying they expect the trade volume to remain "significantly lower" did not bode well for the future.

"The clear choice taken by many to go directly from continental Europe to Ireland because it's easier in terms of red tape and bureaucracy and the appetite for doing more trade between Northern Ireland and mainland UK all of that is bad news for Holyhead."

Mr ap Iorwerth said the tourist trade had been hit by the pandemic and that questions over how to bring people into the town were ongoing and unrelated to either Covid or Brexit. He said there were some positives but many details still needed to be ironed out.

"I don't want border facilities but we're there now and when there was talk of having them away from Anglesey, using a site in England, I campaigned to make sure they were in Holyhead.

"There will be jobs in Holyhead for people there. Whilst it helps those individuals it in no way balances out the losses we are making from Brexit.

"The port is clearly facing pressures with jobs because of loss of trade but there are people working in all sorts of businesses in Holyhead that rely on exports. There are so many businesses who are finding it very hard to export and have stopped altogether because of the red tape."

He added that new possibilities such as the development of the port as an offshore energy hub were more important than ever due to Brexit. "We need to see the investment being made to bring the flexibility and added space into the port so it can make the most of those opportunities.

"The cruise sector had been growing prior to Covid but it's also one where we need to put investment in and put Holyhead at the centre. Those things are all more important now.

"You've always got to believe that there are new opportunities. There will always be things we have lost but it was voted for and there are consequences of that. You've got to deal with that."

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How Wales' biggest port town has coped with Brexit one year on - Wales Online

The European Union figurehead has launched frequent outbursts against the UK following the historic Brexit referendum in June 2016 which saw more than 17 million people in Britain vote to leave the EU. Mr Macron has been particularly critical of the UK's stance in fishing negotiations which he claims have held back his country's fishermen from accessing British territorial waters after Brexit. The simmering tensions between France and the UK exploded last month when the French President reportedly branded Boris Johnson a "clown" and a "knucklehead".

The comments attributed to Mr Macron were made privately to a small group of his advisers during a visit to Croatia the previous week, French satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported.

He had reportedly attacked Mr Johnson for looking to make France a "scapegoat" for Brexit, which he claimed had been "catastrophic" for Britain.

But Nile Gardiner, a foreign policy analyst and former aide to Margaret Thatcher, warned his Brexit-bashing means he faces a huge fight ahead of the presidential elections in May.

He told Express.co.uk: "Even in France, the French people have had enough of it.

"His anti-British rhetoric doesn't play well for most French voters.

"Macron is on a vendetta against the UK - he has called Brexit a crime and this is pathetic posturing from a sinking presidency that is desperately lashing out at the UK because frankly, Brexit has been a great success.

"That is very upsetting to euro-federalists like Macron as they don't want to see Britain succeed.

"Macron has tried to undermine Britain at every opportunity on the migrant issue.

READ MORE:Covid LIVE: Another grim record as UK hits 189k cases

"This hate-fuelled language won't help him at the polls. He looks desperate and pathetic."

Mr Gardiner went as far to say Macron's continued criticism of Britain has left him isolated in Europe as other nations begin to accept the UK's departure from the bloc.

He added: "Emmanuel Macron has become quite isolated in Europe with his approach.

"Germany is now rejecting that 'bash Britain' approach and want to have a very healthy relationship.

"Macron is delusional if he thinks his fear-factor, anti-British rhetoric is going to play well across much of the rest of Europe and it isn't."

The next few months could be pivotal for Mr Macron as he fights to win a second term as French President.

He is having to fight a growing backlash from the French people after his Government imposed stricter rules in a desperate attempt to bring the raging Covid pandemic under control again.

On Wednesday, France achieved an unwanted national and European record after reporting a massive 208,000 new Covid cases.

This followed the 180,000 new infections recorded a day earlier which had already been the highest for a country in Europe, according to data on

Health Minister Olivier Veran warned every second, two people in France are testing positive for Covid.

He added the situation in the country's hospitals was all the more worrying because of the continued presence of the Delta variant, with Omicron yet to have a real impact.

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'French have had enough!' Macron warned 'pathetic' Brexit-bashing may cost him presidency - Daily Express

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson delivered his blunt message to the Foreign Secretary after EU chief negotiator Maros Sefcovic claimed the UK has breached a great deal of trust with its stance over the mechanism for preventing a hard border on the island of Ireland. Unionist critics claim the Protocol has in effect imposed a border down the Irish Sea because it keeps Northern Ireland in the blocs single market for goods.

Mr Donaldson said: We need a clear date now. We need a clear timeline in which there is an expectation of real progress or the Government takes the action that is necessary.

It is crucial that Liz Truss moves this process forward quickly and that we get real and meaningful progress on a range of issues, not least of which is removing the checks on the movement of goods within the UK internal market.

He avoided any reference to a specific date but added: January is going to be an absolutely crucial month.

If we dont get rapid and decisive progress, and one side or the other is kicking the can down the road, this will have major implications for the stability of the political institutions in Northern Ireland.

Speaking to German website Der Spiegel, European Commission vice-president Mr Sefcovic claimed the UK broke international law by trying to circumvent the rules, warning any decision to suspend them by triggering Article 16 would threaten the foundation of the entire deal.

[THIS IS A LIVE BLOG - SCROLL DOWN FOR REGULAR UPDATES]

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Brexit LIVE: Truss under huge pressure to set new deadline on ENDING talks with EU - Daily Express

2021 wasanother year of challenges for the agricultural industry, but as always, we have taken the stumbling blocks inour stride.

Our year started in a very different way than usual - the long standing farmhouse breakfast week went virtual, as in-person events were still not possible due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Nonetheless, the team managed to raise thousands for our charity, the DPJ Foundation.

From the outset we were engaged in environmental and biodiversity work, urging members to take part in the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trusts Big Farmland Bird Count and highlighting the good work that is already being done on farms across Wales.

Against the backdrop of environmental work carried out by our farmers however, was frustration as members directly felt the brunt of not just climate change but inaction by authorities.

Cue the introduction of the Water Resources (Control of Agricultural Pollution) (Wales) Regulations 2021. It can still only be described as a gross betrayal of the industry and one we hope the committee looking into it now will rectify.

In our 2016 election manifesto, we warned of the unprecedented challenges facing the incoming Senedd members and government, and in the five years since, those challenges have not only materialised but been exacerbated and added to.

FUW President Glyn Roberts.

The materialisation of a far harder form of Brexit than had been promised by those who lobbied for our departure from the EU has restricted access to our main export markets on the continent in ways which are only beginning to be felt, while the on-going Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives beyond recognition - highlighting the fragility of global food supply chains and the importance of a strong farming sector on which our domestic markets should be able to rely for mainstream products.

While such issues have been largely beyond the control of our devolved administrations, the reaction of the Welsh Government to the uncertainty and challenges faced by our agriculture sector was at times bewildering and counterintuitive, not least in terms of its appetite for drastically increasing costs and restrictions while advocating untried and untested reforms of rural support policies.

Meanwhile, UK government cuts to Welsh rural funding - in direct contradiction to promises made repeatedly by those who advocated Brexit - have added to the pressures on Welsh agriculture.

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FUW's Glyn Roberts on Welsh Government's Water Bill and Brexit - The National Wales

The Department for International Trades own impact assessment estimates that the deal will cost our farmers and fishers 94m. The knock-on effect just for the tinned food firms which rely on agriculture and fishing will be a staggering 225m.

The impact assessment callously accepts that this countrys farming industry will contract as a result of the Australia deal. In a Select Committee meeting the Conservative MP Neil Parish warned passionately that labour shortages are destroying our farming system and queried whether some ministers knew what they were doing.

Last year we saw pig farmers forced to slaughter their own animals, abattoirs unable to process meat because of a shortage of vets, milk being poured away, and market gardeners destroying or giving away produce because theres no one to pick it.

This year will probably be worse. This is the result of a botched Brexit based on blinkered antagonism to our biggest and nearest trading partner.

Leave voters did not vote for desperate trade deals which undercut and devastate British farmers. No surprise then that the Government lost the recent by-election in North Shropshire, a Leave-voting farming community that had elected Conservative MPs for more than 200 years.

The message is clear until the Government cleans up its act on farming, it cannot protect our countrys interests.

From: John Cole, Oakroyd Terrace, Baildon, Shipley.

MANY of your readers will be familiar with the storyline of Jane Eyre that features Bertha, the first Mrs Rochester. The latter was once beautiful but became insane and destructive and was kept locked in a secret room in the large Rochester house. Since Bertha was a clear embarrassment, Mr Rochester never referred to her and she remained hidden away.

In a like manner Conservatives now shy away from mentioning Brexit. The whole business of the UK leaving the EU has become an embarrassment. At one point perceived by Leavers as desirable and to be embraced, Brexit is now tucked away, out of sight and avoided by Ministers and backbenchers.

Brexit shares with Mrs Rochester the twin characteristics of being both insane and destructive. As an editorial in The Irish Times succinctly put it: No state in the modern era has committed such a senseless act of self-harm.

From: Peter Brown, Shadwell, Leeds.

HOW do those claiming Brexit Britain is attractive to inward investors square that with the problems Donald Trump-owned golf resorts in Scotland are experiencing due to our departure from the European Union (Trump golf courses blame Brexit for staff, cost and delivery issues The Yorkshire Post, December 28)?

The former US President doesnt evoke sympathy. But many Yorkshire firms will at least recognise difficulties Brexit has caused his golf courses such as rising costs, lost trade, staff shortages and delivery problems.

Brexit meant the Conservative Party forfeiting its reputation probably undeserved, anyway as the party of business and sound economic management.

In the coming year, Id like to see the main opposition Labour Party do more to aggressively seize those positions.

From: Peter Packham, Shadwell Lane, Leeds.

I seem to remember that before the 2016 referendum one of the carrots dangled by the Leave side was that if the UK left the EU the government would be able to cut VAT on domestic fuel to zero.

This claim was made by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg. Well now is the time to put your money where your mouths were gentlemen, or was it just another empty Brexit promise?

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Brexit woes pile pressure on business and farming - Yorkshire Post Letters - The Yorkshire Post

'Promises can enrol people but many cant easily be delivered.'

Prem Sikka is an Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Essex and the University of Sheffield, a Labour member of the House of Lords, and Contributing Editor at Left Foot Forward.

The language of politics is full of grand claims which mask the smoke and mirror games played by political parties advancing their ideological objectives.

Peoples support for Brexit was secured through nationalistic slogans which imagined that outside the EU Britain would somehow dictate the terms of trade to others. The campaign promised to take back control and empower people. The reward was a supposed new era of prosperity. Such messages were amplified by the mainstream media and propelled the Conservatives to election victory.

Promises can enrol people but many cant easily be delivered. Far from the promised prosperity, the UK economy is stagnant and household incomes are facing a major squeeze as energy and food prices are rising. The post-Brexit labour shortages and supply chain problems have slowed the economy. After shunning the EU, the UK is trying to secure trading agreements with the USA, Australia, India and others. Such agreements require compromises by sovereign states and the UK has to accept rules which it might not have been very keen on.

There has been no post-Brexit empowerment of parliament or the people. For example, Boris Johnsons September 2019 prorogation of parliament and its subsequent successful challenge in the Supreme Court showed the limits of Prime Ministers power and highlighted peoples ability to challenge the abuses of power. The governments response is the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Bill which enables the Prime Minister to dissolve parliament without any vote. Concerned citizens cannot ask the courts to intervene.

Protests are a key mechanism for renewing democracy. Workers, women, environmentalists, anti-war campaigners, pensioners and others have used protests and marches to give visibility to social problems and challenge governments to rethink their policies. However, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill criminalises peoples right to demonstrate. People may face criminal charges if their protests are too noisy and cause disruption to others. The police can stop and search people suspected of carrying items, such as placards and banners, which may be used in a protest.

The Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021 enables individuals authorised by the state to commit murder, torture, rape and other crimes with immunity from prosecution. The justification for such heinous acts is that they are in the interests of national security; help in preventing or detecting crime or of preventing disorder; or are in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom.

There is little evidence to show that any of the basic claims of Brexit have been delivered or are likely to be delivered. So what was the real agenda? According to Conservative MPs:

The whole point of Brexit is radical supply side reform and moving away from the EU model.

By supply side reform they mean further privatisations; deregulation; tax cuts for the rich; cuts to public services; less protection for workers, consumers and vulnerable citizens. Such policies affect people and ferment dissent. The government has prepared the ground for quelling that by weakening the power of parliament, courts and the people. There is an organised assault on all points of resistance. How many people voted for the loss of civil liberties, further privatisation of social care and the NHS, weakening of local government, cuts to public services; hungry school children, wage freezes, casualization of work, low state pension and social security benefits, or a situation where the poorest 10% of households pay 47.6% of their income in direct and indirect taxes, compared to 33.5% by the richest 10% of the households? Such changes have been imposed through a nationalistic rhetoric and a Brexit sleight of hand.

It is not the first time that governments have engaged in doublespeak to advance their ideological aims. In the 1980s, the Thatcher government pursued its agenda of privatisations, anti-trade union laws, wage freezes; cuts in the state pension, social security benefits and public services by claiming that it was all necessary to control inflation. The mainstream media amplified this message with little critical scrutiny, just as it later promoted the myths associated with Brexit. Some years later Sir Alan Budd, one time economic adviser to the Thatcher Government, said:

My worry is that there may have been people making the actual policy decisions who never believed for a moment that this was the correct way to bring down inflation. They did, however, see that it would be a very, very good way to raise unemployment, and raising unemployment was an extremely desirable way of reducing the strength of the working classes if you like, that what was engineered there in Marxist terms was a crisis of capitalism which recreated a reserve army of labour and has allowed the capitalists to make high profits ever since.

In essence, the Conservative government has used the cover of Brexit for its never-ending class wars to discipline the working class and enrich a few at the expense of money. People need to be sceptical of grand nationalistic claims which almost always hurt and disenfranchise them. We also need politics devoted to building a just and equitable society.

As youre here, we have something to ask you. What we do here to deliver real news is more important than ever. But theres a problem: we need readers like you to chip in to help us survive. We deliver progressive, independent media, that challenges the rights hateful rhetoric. Together we can find the stories that get lost.

Were not bankrolled by billionaire donors, but rely on readers chipping in whatever they can afford to protect our independence. What we do isnt free, and we run on a shoestring. Can you help by chipping in as little as 1 a week to help us survive? Whatever you can donate, were so grateful - and we will ensure your money goes as far as possible to deliver hard-hitting news.

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Prof Prem Sikka: The Tory government has used the cover of Brexit for its never-ending class wars - Left Foot Forward

02 January 2022by eub2-- last modified 02 January 2022

Brexit shook up the UKs data protection landscape, bringing with it a fair share of uncertainty, anxiety and confusion. One year on, the question that very much still remains unanswered is to what extent the UK will now diverge away from the EUs data protection regime.

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"One of the biggest privacy and Brexit conundrums was whether the UK, once a third country, would be granted adequacy by the EU. Whilst perhaps initially considered it a foregone conclusion that the UK would be granted adequacy, this was jeopardised after the Schrems II decision invalidated the US-EU Privacy Shield based upon the US' mass surveillance laws being deemed non-compliant with the EU GDPR - laws that are not dissimilar to the UK's.

"Fortunately, after waiting with bated breath, the UK privacy industry's prayers were answered and, again at the eleventh hour (a mere two days before the bridging period came to an end), the EU deemed the UK adequate in June for now.

"Aside from the questions around the UK's own adequate status, there was also ambiguity around which countries the UK would itself deem adequate, now that it could make its own adequacy decisions. Ultimately, the UK copied the EU's homework and started by simply deeming adequate any country with an adequate status from the EU, plus the EU itself. However, we suspect it won't be long before the UK's list begins expanding at a far faster rate than its EU counterpart.

"If the DCMS' recent consultation is anything to go by, not to mention the UK Secretary of State Nadine Dorries' recent statement about "deepening the data partnership" between the UK and the US, it appears that there is clear intention to diverge quite dramatically. Whilst it remains to be seen how exactly this divergence will manifest itself, it is fair to say that when deciding how to move away from the EU's restrictions, the UK will have in mind its goal of becoming a "global AI superpower".

"In terms of how Brexit impacted other data protection laws, whilst it has always been clear that the ePrivacy Directive would continue to impact the UK post-Brexit, due to it being transposed into UK law through the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulation (PECR), the UK now being free to diverge away from the Directive as it sees fit has brought with it uncertainty. How the UK will develop its laws in this area still remains to be seen, however, if the recent DCMS consultation is anything to go by, the UK may very well be disposing of many of the rules contained in the existing PECR. Questions also remain over to what extent, if any, the UK will choose to align its own regulation with the EU's new ePrivacy and AI Regulations, which are both yet to come into effect."

Lenitha continues, "The above uncertainties all also play into the wider question of whether the UK will keep its adequate status granted by the EU. Whilst the UK government has been extremely bold over recent months in their proposed reforms of UK data protection law, a delicate balance must be struck if it wants to keep its adequate status. If the UK does choose to implement the significant changes proposed in the DCMS' consultation document, the UK's adequate status will likely be left hanging by a thread. For now, we just have to wait to see the result of the consultation, as well as what else 2022 has in store."

Founded in 2017 by Rob Masson, The DPO Centre is the UK's leading independent Data Protection Officer resource centre, offering expert advice and ensuring organisations have access to the level of knowledge and expertise they require to comply with the highest standards of privacy and data protection.

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Brexit and how far will the UK's data protection rules diverge from the EU in 2022 EUbusiness.com | EU news, business and politics - EUbusiness