IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days
- Reference: 1666611006
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/10/24/ibm_uturn_brexit/
- Source link:
In an [1]interview with The Telegraph , IBM UK and Ireland general manager Sreeram Visvanathan predicted Britain would have "the ability to do a lot more, post Brexit."
He also said there was an appetite for innovation among UK regulators since they were no longer bound by EU law.
[2]
"I've seen the regulators be very open... I've seen us move away from that hard stance of 'this is the mandate and thou shalt obey the mandate.' There's a willingness to listen and to adapt," he told the Brexit-supporting broadsheet newspaper.
[3]
[4]
Visvanathan said UK businesses should show greater leadership, be more imaginative, and embrace change faster.
"It's a very specific area of passion for me, because I don't see too many leaders embracing that as quickly as I think we should," he said.
[5]
Businesses that have come out against Brexit include IBM itself.
Before the UK's EU referendum, [6]David Stokes, the tech giant's UK chief at the time, said Brexit would put jobs and the economy at risk .
"IBM is in favor of the UK remaining a member of a reformed EU," said Stokes in an internal blog seen by us. "As a large, globally integrated business with a strong presence across the European Union, IBM sees significant benefits from EU economic integration."
[7]
[8]EMC, Cisco and [9]Microsoft were among the other large tech firms to support the UK's continued membership of the EU.
Following the vote, IBM went on to warn of the [10]dangers of a no-deal Brexit .
[11]Brexit dividend? 'Newly independent' UK will be world's 'data hub', claims digital minister
[12]Post-Brexit 'science superpower' UK still hasn't appointed a science minister
[13]Nadine Dorries promotes 'Brexit rewards' of proposed UK data protection law
[14]Report slams UK plan to become 'science superpower' by 2030
The UK did strike a deal with the EU, one which then prime minister Boris Johnson backed as an "oven-ready" package he could get through Parliament following a general election, which he went on to win in 2019. Then, in 2022, the UK said it wanted to [15]renegotiate the bits of the deal relating to Northern Ireland , which shares a land border with the EU.
IBM now appears to have changed its mind, citing flexibility in regulation - we guess it has little choice. Since the UK left the EU, politicians [16]have talked up Brexit's ability to create supposed "pro-innovation" data regulations.
Getting its second reading in the House of Commons, the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill sets out how the UK plans to diverge from data protection legislation introduced during its membership of the European Union.
Former digital and culture secretary Nadine Dorries claimed last mmonth that new data reforms would [17]unlock growth and save businesses around £1 billion ($1.15 billion) over the next 10 years.
Legal experts have pointed out that if the UK diverges too far from the basic principles of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), it will pay the price through the [18]loss of its adequacy status for data sharing to and from the trade bloc, a move that would add to businesses' costs. ®
Get our [19]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/10/23/post-brexit-overhaul-red-tape-will-allow-london-tech-thrive/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y1a2mhEKg-FVVfs7V6dNFgAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1a2mhEKg-FVVfs7V6dNFgAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y1a2mhEKg-FVVfs7V6dNFgAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y1a2mhEKg-FVVfs7V6dNFgAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2016/04/26/imb_says_no_to_brexit/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y1a2mhEKg-FVVfs7V6dNFgAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2016/05/20/emc_comes_remain/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2016/06/20/microsoft_remain_cabinet_minister_meeting_cancelled/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2019/03/01/ibm_brexit_plan/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/06/new_dcms_head_newly_independent/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/28/uk_science_minitser_role_empty/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/05/culture_secretary_data_bill_uk/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/scitech_superpower/
[15] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58001530
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/05/culture_secretary_data_bill_uk/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/09/05/culture_secretary_data_bill_uk/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/16/brexit_data_law/
[19] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
It's IBM so they are probably looking forward to firing people at will without having to worry about yet more age discrimination lawsuits
Fire them? When there are so many opportunities in the sausage business now we've got rid of the namby-pamby anti Sweeney Todd EU rules
Move fast and break things
The new Number 10 motto
>IBM UK and Ireland general manager Sreeram Visvanathan predicted Britain would have "the ability to do a lot more, post Brexit."
Presumably Sreeram means "do a lot more sacking", rather than "do a lot more useful, productive work". And given he's saying this to The Telegraph, presumably without having to concern his noble, business leader, job creator soul without such trifling red tape as employee consultations, redeployment or redundancy payouts.
There is also the opportune to replace those off-shored Indian staff with cheaper British workers. If we can only get rid of the pesky antislavery laws
Don't IBM do a lot of consultancy now? There are probably some lucrative contracts available for the various new systems needed to replace what we lost when we left the EU.
Replacing EU red tape with red white and blue tape.... Some win
That would be three separate Red, White & Blue tapes.
"Replacing EU red tape with red white and blue tape.... "
Yup, Brexit is creating quite a lot of work for some of my colleagues, updating documentation to include not only CE but also UKCA declarations, which essentially have the same contents. So a complete waste of money for the customers, purely red tape. And once UKCA requirements start to diverge from CE it'll get even worse as then we may need two different versions of the equipment. All in all, a pointless waste of money and effort.
Meanwhile, overseas governments are happy to accept European standards. E.g. the Hong Kong government specified them for bin lorries, see page 13 of https://www.dennis-eagle.co.uk/news-and-media/eagle-eye/te-magazine-2020/
Er, the NHS App contract went to IBM, presumably so they could siphon off patient data. I presume also the lessening of UK data protection is to allow data siphoning to the US, before NHS privatisation. At the moment, if we buy a SaaS solution, we're happy if the data resides in the EU, I fear it will become the wild west soon enough, and much of our data will be in the US.
said UK businesses should show greater leadership, be more imaginative, and embrace change faster.
Yeah, I can think of a US business that should have been doing those things too for the last 25 years. It's called IBM.
love to be proven wrong...
...but this won't end well. Not well at all.
Sad..
The talk on here is sometimes like a bunch of elderly shop-stewards from the 70's discussing how any sort of change must be resisted, whilst blaming everyone else for the coming recession.
Of course saying that will go down like a bag of cold sick, but just consider that IBM has deep business contacts throughout the UK, previously opposed Brexit and has now changed it's stance. It's depressing that rather than saying "hey, this is interesting new information, maybe something is going on here I didn't understand", so many responses are instead, "evil businesses are wrong and must be opposed."
IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days
IBM didn't think the Holocaust was such a bad thing in the 1930s.
citing flexibility in regulation
Re-establishing children's work would be a good start. Get rid of anything protecting this so-called "privacy", a communist thing. Remove taxes for rich people as this is communist too. Only poor should have to pay that. And generally allow big companies to do what ever they please, because it will save the economy or whatever.
== Bring us Dabbsy back! ==