284. And so it begins

In amongst the media ruckus around Capitol riots, Trump’s possible impeachment and a rampant coronavirus pandemic, some important news can easily be missed. The UK’s Environment Department has issued emergency use authorisation for neonicotinoid thiamethoxam, a pesticide banned in the EU because of its dangers to biodiversity and pollinators. This is really what is at the heart of Brexit, the desire by neoliberal ideologues to march along the deregulation drive initiated by their ideological matriarch, Mrs. Thatcher. Standards will not slip quickly or catastrophically, but slowly, one small, by itself not significant, deregulation at a time. The economic imperative driving them will win the day at every junction, pushing the UK’s regulatory framework and, with it, its society, slowly right, and ultimately off an inequality cliff. Those who can afford to will live outside the UK society, as many Brexiteers have already done. Those who cannot, after all, don’t really matter, do they?

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