Did leaving the EU have an upside?

By Brian Clegg

There is no doubt whatsoever that leaving the EU has had a negative business impact on the UK – it was surely obviously the case if you knew anything about economics. But there arguably is an upside where we can deviate from some of the EU’s more dire policies, as it is without doubt a hyper-bureaucratic organisation.

This is nowhere more obvious than in its approach to IT. I’ve been aware of this for decades. When I worked at BA I was involved briefly in an EU project to develop a new check-in system for airlines. Given what a standardised process check-in is, it seemed reasonable to have a shared development. At one of the first meetings, the EU representatives said ‘Okay, the first thing we have to do is to design a check-in terminal.’ We were appalled – why develop a whole new piece of hardware at vast expense (and it really would have been expensive) when you could use a standard PC off the shelf. We left the project soon after.

Similarly, the EU has made the simple matter of browsing websites a pain because of all those pop-ups demanding we decide how we want cookies to be stored – it’s all display of EU power without any real benefit to the user. And don’t get me started on the way they handle VAT on online purchases.

The most recent example of the EU really missing the point was the EU’s Digital Markets Act, to quote a piece in The Washington Post ‘The law requires that the moment Siri AI ships in Europe, any rival AI agent must get the same sweeping access to a user’s messages, files and chat history.’ So where here in the UK I will be able to use the advanced Siri, those in the EU won’t – because Apple won’t allow any old AI agent access all this material.

A friend used to mock my use of Apple tech because of its ‘closed garden’ approach. But it’s one of the reasons I like using Apple. I don’t want Meta, say, to be able to burrow into my data. It’s the same reason I have Apple smart speakers rather than Amazon ones – I feel more secure using them.

People moan about the lack of IT progress in Europe when compared with the US. It’s hardly surprising with the regulatory drag that the bureaucracy imposes.

These articles will always be free – but if you’d like to support my online work, consider buying a virtual coffee or taking out a membership: 

See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here

Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.