Of all the awful, idiotic, dangerous and/or cruel ideas that have come down through the right wing noise machine, competition is high for the most damaging. But it seems we may have a winner: Brexit. As The Guardian reports:
While negotiating [the UK] exit from the EU, the government repeatedly promised that environmental protections would not be eroded. In 2018, for example, the then environment secretary Michael Gove, in a speech titled Green Brexit, claimed "not only will there be no abandonment of the environmental principles that we've adopted in our time in the EU, but indeed we aim to strengthen environmental protection measures". Such pledges turn out to be as dodgy as a £3 coin with Boris Johnson's head on it.
So what happened?
Our proudly sovereign regulatory system immediately descended into total chaos: chaos of the kind that the warlord capitalists who backed the leave campaign might have been hoping for. It took the UK's Health and Safety Executive (HSE) until last month to publish its chemicals regulation work programme for the financial year 2023-2024. That was, erm, six weeks before the period expired. You'll remember, of course, how Brexit would enable us to escape the "inefficiencies" of Brussels bureaucracy.
This dysfunction leaves us exposed to toxins now being banned or restricted in Europe.
Big surprise — Brexit was all lies. It's permanently damaged the British economy. It had none of the benefits claimed, but it actually seems to have had even worse outcomes than the naysayers predicted in many cases.
Why do people listen to these lies? It's so obvious that initiatives like this are for the benefit of huge corporations, but politicians and pundits never fail to convince suckers that they have to vote for X so they can stick it to the elites. Or the libs. Or something.
One thing's for sure: propaganda works on people wide open to hearing what they want to hear.
See also: Brexit finally hits UK food imports
