Brexit plans must protect consumer rights, MSE and leading consumer groups warn PM 28 March 2017 at 8:12AM in Campaigns corner 11 replies 9.9K views

Former_MSE_Faye

The Prime Minister has been urged not to let consumer rights 'fall by the wayside' during negotiations...

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'Brexit plans must protect consumer rights, MSE and leading consumer groups warn PM'

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Doc_N

Absolutely right - and a major issue, given the protection and other benefits (conveniently forgotten by the Brexit liars like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove) that the EU has brought to consumers across Europe.

But then, why would the Conservatives care about looking after consumer protection - big business would be more than happy to see it fall by the wayside, and let's not forget where the Conservatives get their support and funding.

spikyone

Of course, the UK is going to turn into the Wild West after Brexit. Consumer rights, employee rights, safety standards - the UK was always far too stupid to come up with any of those without the EU and we wouldn't want them anyway... /sarcasm

Seriously, this pro-EU propaganda was preposterous long before the referendum. Considering that we were repeatedly told Remain voters were more intelligent, they show an incredible lack of imagination in presuming that all of those things are inextricably linked to the EU or that there's no way we can possibly replace them - or, perish the thought, improve on them - once we leave. In terms of safety standards in particular, are people truly stupid enough to think we'll relax safety standards and companies will then rush to produce cheap, unsafe products for the UK that they would be unable to sell elsewhere?

teeb

In terms of safety standards in particular, are people truly stupid enough to think we'll relax safety standards and companies will then rush to produce cheap, unsafe products for the UK that they would be unable to sell elsewhere?

Brexit is already giving us food with lower welfare and safety standards than before, with the government unwilling to clarify the matter, so why should consumer rights be any different?


If we want EU benefits like consumer rights then we should have voted to stay in the EU.

mjm3346

teeb wrote: »

If we want EU benefits like consumer rights then we should have voted to stay in the EU.

Anyone can spin it anyway they like

UK pig farmers losing out as EU 'fails to enforce' welfare rules

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/agriculture/farming/11961682/UK-pig-farmers-losing-out-as-EU-fails-to-enforce-welfare-rules.html

spikyone

teeb wrote: »

Brexit is already giving us food with lower welfare and safety standards than before, with the government unwilling to clarify the matter, so why should consumer rights be any different?

Well if an economist from a non-profit organisation that will play no part in trade negotiations says that's what will happen, it must be true... :T

No matter how scary-sounding that piece of propaganda may be, nothing has yet changed with regard to what can be sold in the UK, and the US has already tried to get the EU to agree to it so there is equally no guarantee that the rest of the EU won't end up importing those foods in future. Either way, the point of negotiations is that both sides go to the table with things they would like, and they don't always get all of them.

teeb wrote: »

If we want EU benefits like consumer rights then we should have voted to stay in the EU.

Consumer rights is not an EU benefit. EU laws might form the basis of some of our current consumer rights, but that is entirely different from the wholly incorrect notion that we will not have, or could not have had, consumer rights without being in the EU.

EDIT:

mjm3346 wrote: »

Anyone can spin it anyway they like

UK pig farmers losing out as EU 'fails to enforce' welfare rules

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/agriculture/farming/11961682/UK-pig-farmers-losing-out-as-EU-fails-to-enforce-welfare-rules.html

Hmmm, I could've sworn that all the "rights" in the UK came from the EU, yet this article appears to suggest that our animal rights were 14 years ahead of those in the EU. That can't be right...

JohnRo

So what, at least the NHS will be £350M a week better off.

Doc_N

JohnRo wrote: »

So what, at least the NHS will be £350M a week better off.

Amazing, isn't it, how that one single magnificent lie probably resulted in enough gullible and unintelligent people switching their votes from remain to leave to throw the result.

Jackmydad

teeb wrote: »

If we want EU benefits like consumer rights then we should have voted to stay in the EU.

But we didn't. We democratically voted to leave. I reckon we can arrange out own "rights" for ourselves.

JohnRo wrote: »

So what, at least the NHS will be £350M a week better off.

Yes, just think! They could pay for more managers, more and betterer computer systems, and even longer waiting times. :rotfl:

fewgroats

Consumers are the users of businesses. Businesses are doomed, so that means consumers are doomed too. You voted for it!

Enterprise_1701C

I cant understand why people are worried about this. British human rights and standards in general have always been streets ahead of the eu, we dragged the rest of them into the 20th century, although a lot of them have not yet made it into the 21st century having just visited Italy.

Have a look at this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36434855

And laws aren't just going to disappear overnight, a lot will be turned into UK legislation, but most of the eu laws are designed to benefit Germany, either by making it more expensive to do things in other countries or by bringing standards down to theirs. A lot of the eu countries ignore these laws and nothing is done about that.

You only have to look at the electrics in other eu countries to realise they pick and choose what rules they follow, so the idea that we will follow all eu rules for the sake of it after we leave is ridiculous. As I said, our standards in general are far better than those in a lot of the eu.

As an example, we had rules for paid leave quite a few years before we joined the common market. Strangely enough though, we never joined the eu, it was foisted on us. If they had done things differently instead of thinking no-one would ever notice, then maybe we could have made sure it went in the right direction instead of becoming the bloated german hegemony that it is now, it can't last as it is, especially as no-one at the top will ever admit to mistakes.