Brexit

[Witton Park]

I'm against governments setting standards. The standards should be set by the consumer, middle Man and producer. If the consumer buys a product that says it's one thing but actually it's another etc then the middle Man and producer can be sued or prosecuted for fraud.

You are right about conformity. Currently producers have to conform to governmental standards. But this isn't ideal. Hopefully Brexit will lead us to that ideal.

It's a tough one Chris.

When I supplied footwear until I joined a company in 2003 working out of the Far East I had really very little knowledge of some of the issues in my own industry.
Then I found out about some of the chemical issues in footwear, such as phthalates in plastics, chrome 6 in leather/suede, azo dyes ..... and that company did extensive chemical testing in the supply chain.

It was interesting then moving from working purely in the UK industry, to an international one and seeing the differing attitudes across the EU even though we were supposed to work to the same standards.

The UK were hot on ethical trading. Factory audits were the big thing. That was closely followed by technical standards such as sole bond test, colour fastness, strap attachment....

The Germans were hot on the chemicals. Less concerned about other matters.

The French really didn't give a proverbial. It was all about price.

I think there has to be a standards regime, particularly in areas the public would have little knowledge.

But on the other hand when I moved in to lifejackets in 2009, I found how restrictive standards could be.

The lifejacket standards require an auto lifejacket to fully inflate within 5 seconds of hitting the water, and then for them to inflate and turn an unconscious wearer in the water. Which is why they have a horseshoe shape, often with uneven sized lobes which generate the turning motion as the wearers legs sink in the water and hold the wearers chin a set height above the water.

The problem is that these are tested in a pool, usually with someone in swimwear and calm water.

Out at sea, or even in fresh water conditions, cold water shock and hypothermia are the bigger issues and so people wear foul weather clothing.
That clothing has a degree of inherent buoyancy which acts against the turning mechanism of the lifejacket.

I've taken part in a few tests in Scottish lochs and some pool tests as certain industries cast doubt on the standards written around lifejackets and wanted to test lifejackets in combination with foul weather clothing to see what combinations gave the best results.

Most accept that the turning mechanism is largely useless, but the need for that turning mechanism to meet the standard stifles innovation.

If that part of the standard was dropped, you could see a lifejacket design perhaps that closer resembled a small lifeboat.

So I have concerned about how standards are framed, but I do think we need a framework.