With news that a Brexit EU trade deal might just be signed after all, Guido is setting this simple symbolic test to see if the deal will cut the mustard and allow this country to be truly sovereign. If the deal passes this test, Guido would be minded to endorse the deal’s ratification. If it does not, Guido will likely oppose. Here it is:

“Does the deal allow the UK to repeal the EU’s stupid directive forcing websites to put up those annoying ‘Accept Cookies’ banners?”

The hated Cookie Law started as an EU Directive adopted in May 2011. Forced to comply with the EU’s order, the UK amended its Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) to include this mindless hassle. A perfect example of one of those annoyances that costs business time and money to help no one. Only geeks know what cookies are, and everyone else mindlessly clicks to accept them so they can get on to the content they’re after anyway.

It seems trivial, yet this small annoyance is indicative of the hundreds of thousands of trivial and anti-business regulations that have unaccountably poured out from Brussels for decades, rubber-stamped by a servile parliament. If we can repeal the Cookie Law, that will indicate a far deeper sovereignty that allows us to do so much more.

So this is the test. If the deal lets the UK repeal the cookie law, and by implication many thousands like it, that is a real Brexit. That is a Brexit which lets Britain deregulate. If not, Guido would advise MPs to vote down the deal…

For a more comprehensive, less symbolic list of the more consequential benefits of Brexit, see: What Are the Benefits of Brexit?