Pussy willow
Today's constitutional
10.03.2026 12:07
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Pussy willow
Today's constitutional
[sighs in just having a heat pump put in]
Paul McCartney, so we could resolve the travelling musician thing at the same time
True, but given anything presume that loss to NI brief wasn't worth the benefit
Which goes back to your original point: is UK minded to invest (and be seen to do so) in this relationship?
Counterpoint: Mandelson experience highlights the perils of trying to pick someone to (metapohrically) rub the EU's tummy
(very bad metaphor, sorry)
Also hadn't seen anything on this
To David's point, EU knowledge is good, but main gap right now is some strategic vision-ing
Image of FDCO announcement appointing Dame Caroline Wilson to UK Ambassador to the EU
Interesting choice - Dame Caroline Wilson, who was previously Europe Director in the FCDO during part of the Brexit years and later UK ambassador to China, will become the next UK Ambassador to the EU:
Great opportunity to hear my @oupolitics.bsky.social colleague Tom discuss his research on people-centred security
@mybisa.bsky.social @ukandeu.bsky.social
Every time I read what a UK minister says about the EU it almost feels like they're assuming we have the same power as members. We're not negotiating, we're making representations. Only EU institutions are negotiating their rules.
The clearest indication yet of how extensive the UK-EU SPS agreement will be. Covers almost everything.
It also shows you where the current differences between the UK and EU lie (ie, what isn't included on the list): precision breeding/NGTs, veterinary meds, and (to a lesser extent) animal welfare.
Agree there's no good reason not to have as good public data as private
And also agree with David that SPS is a very big pile of detail
TBF this is public-facing side of the database, so internal records might have all this covered much better
In sum: happy not to be working in agrifoods
/end
You can find all my workings here:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
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So what does this tell us?
- record-keeping is both patchy and difficult, but also important
- SPS deals involve a lot more work than a lot of politicians realise
- implementing an SPS deal is going to be a big job
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As for the missing 16, it's hard to know why they are missing
All but one took place during membership and all were primary EU legislation, so there's no obvious reason why they aren't present here
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For the stuff on the list, 157 items are unchanged, which makes life easier for DEFRA (who've only recently done a bunch of work to rebuild a UK SPS regime)
But there's also 59 amended items and 29 repealed ones: potentially all of which require work to comply with the coming deal
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We find 245 items that reference items on the list, but we also find that 16 items on the SPS list don't appear at all on the database
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And because I have too much time on my hands, I can run a quick check for those 76 items to see how they turn up on the dashboard's database
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As I've written about before, this isn't the case
Even after 3 years of regular updates, we're still getting new items being added (and some old items disappearing)
ukandeu.ac.uk/the-boundles...
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/5bis
The dashboard is Jacob Rees-Mogg's lasting legacy, part of his efforts in govt to review/revise/repeal all of the EU laws still in effect in the UK
Can't do any of that if you don't know what's on the books? Right?
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However, broadly speaking, given that almost all the items involved were 1st passed into law before UK withdrawal in 2021, we'd expect to find a convenient and comprehensive database here:
reul.businessandtrade.gov.uk
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However, the list of 76 EU items doesn't produce a simple of 76 UK items
- UK has to transpose into domestic legislation
- EU laws get various amendments/updates themselves
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Today's list of SPS legislation is part of the govt's move to prepare businesses for the coming deal with the EU
Basic model is that UK will align to various EU standards and practices, as embodied in multiple pieces of EU law
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Good exercise to see how joined-up UK govt records are on EU legislation
tl;dr errrm
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UK government releases list of 76 EU laws that it says UK will align with under food standards treaty with EU www.gov.uk/government/n...
Feeling like a good day to be getting the heat pump installed to replace the gas boiler
More seriously, we had similar in Gibraltar in recent months, with govt trying to prep stakeholders without a legal text to share
You and your "details" and your "the actual substantive points of the agreement"...