It’s a benefit of Brexit – but only if you’re a manufacturer or distributor of toxic chemicals. For the rest of us, it’s another load we have to carry on behalf of the shysters and corner-cutters who lobbied for the UK to leave the EU.
The government insisted on a separate regulatory system for chemicals. At first sight, it’s senseless: chemical regulation is extremely complicated and expensive. Why replicate an EU system that costs many millions of euros and employs a small army of scientists and administrators? Why not simply adopt as UK standards the decisions it makes? After all, common regulatory standards make trading with the rest of Europe easier. Well, now we know. A separate system allows the UK to become a dumping ground for the chemicals that Europe rules unsafe.
I find it frustrating that people are still pointing the finger at Brexit for things like this, when the blame surely lays at the feet of the government. Brexit didn’t cause the changes (we didn’t have to adopt different standards etc as a direct result of it) the government chose to. Britain is becoming a ‘chemical dumping ground’ because of a decision made by the Tories. Facilitated by Brexit, maybe, but not a direct result of it.
Blaming Brexit for every bad decision our government makes post 2020 is shifting the blame and responsibility away from the people actually making those decisions in the first place. Hold the government accountable, not the amorphous concept of Brexit.
Eh. I assume you fail ti remember brexiters spent years placing the blame for UK government activity on EU membership.