But you have to recognise that UK government is generally harsher to smaller businesses and to people than EU institutions.
In general, EU directives and regulations are more oriented towards easier and fairer trading, and better support of human rights than UK government attitudes towards those things. It's not true of every little directive of course, but the general trend is that way.
For cross-border trading, the problem is that UK business and UK government aren't aligned at all.
So the UK government being in control means screwing a lot of UK business, and government appears to be fine with that, as long as they get re-elected. The current prime minister literally said "fuck business" when anticipated issues around Brexit were discussed some years ago. His position does not appear to have changed.
You can see this misalignment on LinkedIn posted from HM Government that advise on actions businesses "need to take" now. On each post you might see 99-100% of the comments expressing disappointment, annoyance and contempt at the government.
Considering the popular vote split on Brexit, it's striking how the comments on HMG LinkedIn posts are almost universally negative.
I think the government's real priority was made clear by the previous prime minister: Many speeches about Brexit negotiations to UK audiences started with words like "on XXX date, freedom of movement will end". It was strikingly consistent. Preventing people in the UK from freely moving to the EU, and vice versa, looks to me to have been the primary agenda item of those leading the Brexit movement throughout. That's what being "in control" is. Control of people. Some parts of the resulting trade agreement reflect this, for example the EU offering to allow touring musicians so long as it was mutual, and the UK declining, and the UK's decision to decline the EU offer to continue the Erasmus student exchange program.
Yes, that's true. The UK government had always had some level of control at the beginning when the borders opened for so countries but the UK didn't make of this ability. Personally, I am biased as EU citizen in the UK but I think the EU has been flexible to the zero-sum approach of the UK during the negotiations.
But you have to recognise that UK government is generally harsher to smaller businesses and to people than EU institutions.
In general, EU directives and regulations are more oriented towards easier and fairer trading, and better support of human rights than UK government attitudes towards those things. It's not true of every little directive of course, but the general trend is that way.
For cross-border trading, the problem is that UK business and UK government aren't aligned at all.
So the UK government being in control means screwing a lot of UK business, and government appears to be fine with that, as long as they get re-elected. The current prime minister literally said "fuck business" when anticipated issues around Brexit were discussed some years ago. His position does not appear to have changed.
You can see this misalignment on LinkedIn posted from HM Government that advise on actions businesses "need to take" now. On each post you might see 99-100% of the comments expressing disappointment, annoyance and contempt at the government.
Considering the popular vote split on Brexit, it's striking how the comments on HMG LinkedIn posts are almost universally negative.
I think the government's real priority was made clear by the previous prime minister: Many speeches about Brexit negotiations to UK audiences started with words like "on XXX date, freedom of movement will end". It was strikingly consistent. Preventing people in the UK from freely moving to the EU, and vice versa, looks to me to have been the primary agenda item of those leading the Brexit movement throughout. That's what being "in control" is. Control of people. Some parts of the resulting trade agreement reflect this, for example the EU offering to allow touring musicians so long as it was mutual, and the UK declining, and the UK's decision to decline the EU offer to continue the Erasmus student exchange program.