IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

IBM has extolled the benefits of the UK's departure from the world's richest trade bloc in an apparent U-turn on its earlier Brexit stance. In an interview with The Telegraph, IBM UK and Ireland general manager Sreeram Visvanathan predicted Britain will have "the ability to do a lot more, post Brexit." He also said there was …

[Potemkine!]

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! ==

[Blank Reg]

It's IBM so they are probably looking forward to firing people at will without having to worry about yet more age discrimination lawsuits

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

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

[heyrick]

"Re-establishing children's work would be a good start."

Just you wait. Rees-Mogg wants to bring in a rule that could get rid of some 2,400 laws overnight. So it may yet be children in the workhouses. It would certainly be the Dickensian vision that Mogg seems to be aiming for...

( Guardian story link )

[Ian Johnston]

Yes, but JRM said in the summer that he would refuse to serve in a Sunak cabinet because Sunak is a socialist (sic) so presumably his sense of honour will compel him to return to the back benches.

[Yes Me]

void()

His what?

[anonymous boring coward]

".. presumably his sense of honour ..."

Good one!

[Alan Hope]

At last we will be allowed to import "bananas of abnormal curvature" !

[Anonymous Coward]

In these overly coddled times, kids play a lot of Minecraft, they yearn for the mines.

[Michael Wojcik]

There's nought wrong with gala luncheons!

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

Move fast and break things

The new Number 10 motto

[Anonymous Coward]

>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.

[Yet Another Anonymous coward]

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

[Stuart Castle]

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.

[Szymon Kosecki]

Replacing EU red tape with red white and blue tape.... Some win

[Will Godfrey]

That would be three separate Red, White & Blue tapes.

[H in The Hague]

"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/

[TVU]

"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"

Indeed, and while it's nice to see trade deals with Australia and others to reduce trade tariffs and customs bureaucracy, I would also like to see a similar deal done with our largest trading partner, the European Union.

PS I am still waiting for my Brexit dividend of a free crock of gold at the end of the rainbow and the delivery of a live baby unicorn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Still waiting for the Oz trade deal to kick in, so my nephew can come here from the UK on a student holiday visa when the cutoff goes up from 30 to 35. It still needs to go through ratification in both parliaments. In Australia this is basically a rubber stamping exercise once the committee that goes through any treaties gives it the OK. Not sure how high up it will be in the priority list of the new UK govt.

[Anonymous Coward]

The UK govt has a priority list?

Maybe one of self-preservation first, followed by "what can we screw up next?"

[Michael Wojcik]

Unfortunately due to customs issues delivery has been delayed, and while you should be receiving your baby unicorn soon, some reduction in liveness may have occurred.

[GruntyMcPugh]

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.

[Michael Wojcik]

Take heart. At the rate IBM are discarding talent, with a little luck they'll lose your data before it makes it to the US.

[Anonymous Coward]

That could get interesting - UK citizen data shared with US, but what if those citizens live in EU?

Presumably the brexiteer."solution" will be the usual mix of lying and pretending things aren't happening when everyone can see they are.

[Howard Sway]

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.

[chivo243]

love to be proven wrong...

...but this won't end well. Not well at all.

[Andy 73]

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."

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Sad..

This is the first positive comment on this thread. Life lesson, this is the sort of person you should try to mix with. He won't bring you down unlike the earlier posters. The endless moaners that do bugger all except moan, say everything is shit and yet expect everybody else to sort their shit out for them.

You know the sort, they are most happy when they are pointing out everybody else's failings yet seem oblivious to their own.

[that one in the corner]

Re: Sad..

> they are most happy when they are pointing out everybody else's failings yet seem oblivious to their own

Pot, have you met kettle?

[codejunky]

Re: Sad..

@Andy 73

Took a while but nice to see a comment that doesnt seem to be shouting about monsters under the bed or the sky is falling

[call-me-mark]

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.

</godwin>

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

You mean the last time someone tried to create a United Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals?

[NeilPost]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

Wasn’t really trying the create a United Europe… was more just invasion. See also Putin trying to recreate a Soviet Union.

[heyrick]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

Big companies will go wherever there's money to be made, ethics be damned.

[Andy 73]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

Wow.

I'm not sure which is worse, that you think that's a reasonable comparison to make (even with the defensive Godwin reference), or that you got so many upvotes for it. There seems to be a strong ideological contingent on these forums these days..

[codejunky]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

@call-me-mark

"IBM didn't think the Holocaust was such a bad thing in the 1930s."

Can you clarify. Is your comment in reference to IBM supporting the United Europe currently under the German ex-war minister largely dominated by the engine of growth Germany? Or the change of opinion to supporting brexit?

[call-me-mark]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

No.

[codejunky]

Re: IBM doesn't think Brexit is such a bad thing these days

@call-me-mark

That got a good chuckle

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

If you were a tech company, where would you find the more advantageous regulatory regime, the EU or California?

If you were an EU country, what would be your first step in moving towards a more advantageous regulatory regime?

But hey, never stop kneejerk hatred and blind hypocrisy from hitting the Downvote button. You are a Reg commetard, after all.

[that one in the corner]

Re: Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

Advantageous for who - IBM or the population of the UK?

No, wait, I forgot: "What is good for IBM is good for the UK", eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

I'll tell you one thing that's bad for the people of the UK; an economic crash brought on by clowns who think that pushing their ideology is more sensible that listening to what businesses say.

(And me a rabid F/LOSS advocate, too.)

[that one in the corner]

Re: Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

If you're referring to the events of the last few of weeks then they weren't listening to what *anyone* was saying, businesses weren't special in that regard!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Maybe, just maybe, IBM might have a point?

(S)he could have been referring also to kneejerk Brexit-haters?

[anonymous boring coward]

Sadly I'm not a mega corporation.