“Practical reality crashes into Brexit…”
The right-wing media worked itself into a familiar frenzy recently over news that UK-made cars might have to include black boxes, breathalysers and other safety features under proposals to align with EU rules.
GB News was quick to jump on the outrage: “UK-made cars could be forced to include ‘black boxes’ and other features as Labour sides with EU,” blared the headline, with a sub-header warning: “The proposed move has been slammed by Brexiteers who warn it will impact trade.”
According to reports, the government is considering aligning with the EU’s General Safety Regulation 2 (GSR2), a set of standards designed to make cars safer. A perfectly sensible proposal, one might think.
The Telegraph was the first to report the Brexiteer outcry.
“Brexit row as Labour aligns with EU on breathalysers for British cars.” The article revealed that the government’s actual motivation was to ensure that carmakers don’t face costly regulatory divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In other words, aligning with GSR2 would help manufacturers avoid producing different models for different parts of the UK, and crucially, help keep car prices down for British consumers.
As a government spokesperson explained: “Following the UK’s exit from the EU, differences between UK and EU regulations mean some manufacturers make cars specifically for the GB market.
“This can add costs to the manufacturing process, which are liable to be passed onto GB consumers, so we’re considering aligning with EU car safety regulations to keep car prices down.”
Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), agreed, noting that regulatory harmony would ensure affordability and provide British drivers with a wider range of vehicles.
But such practicality was wasted on the usual suspects. The Telegraph still chose to frame the story in a conspiratorial way, quoting Brexiteers who called it “alignment by stealth.”
Enter Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader and staunch Brexiteer. “They are sneaking this through,” he claimed, adding: “This is their plan. This is not a one-off.”
Duncan Smith further insisted that aligning with “draconian” EU rules would not only raise car prices but also jeopardise trade deals with non-EU countries like the US.
“It screws up all your trade potential elsewhere. Your negotiating capacity is massively reduced,” he said. “We lose all the competition, all the trade potential, and we lose control. Because now some faceless bureaucrats in Brussels run the UK, which is what we left the EU to stop.”
Then came Mark Francois, chairman of the Conservative European Research Group, who called the move “rule-taking from the EU” and warned it would “stifle domestic innovation.”
The irony, of course, is that Brexiteers spent years claiming that leaving the EU would let the UK become a more competitive, pragmatic, and sovereign nation. And yet here we are, presented with a proposal that supports industry, benefits consumers, enhances road safety, and requires no loss of sovereignty.
And the irony wasn’t lost on readers.
“Practical reality crashes into Brexit…” wrote Leeds for Europe.
“Sounds perfectly sensible. And if it’s got the Brexiteers raging then it’s almost certainly the right thing to do!” wrote another exasperated reader.
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