Over the first weekend in May, dynamic democracy took place in London, home city of The Finchley Clinic. For Sadiq Khan was elected its Mayor. Why was this dynamic? Well, as the media has liked to remind the world at seemingly every opportunity, he’s not only a Muslim, but also the son of a Pakistani bus driver. His elevation to running the UK capital then is a triumph for meritocracy and diversity, and is representative of the city’s enormously cosmopolitan and progressive nature. All of that is to be applauded, undoubtedly.

What’s to be less applauded, though, is that Khan – now having the greatest personal mandate of any single politician in the UK, thanks to more than 1.3 million Londoners voting for him – will conspicuously campaign for Britain to remain in the European Union (EU), ahead of the 23rd June EU referendum. On this point – and using his prominent, unique profile, as he’s bound to do so (he’s actually claimed he’ll campaign alongside the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, with whom he agrees on little else) – he’s simply dead wrong.

For small and medium-sized businesses that, like The Finchley Clinic, aim to sell the most reliable, safest and best possible health supplements to you, our customers, the EU is an utterly throttling institution. This corner of our website has been used before now to address this issue, granted; but it’s such an important one to everything we care about and aim to do for our customers, the need to address it again is paramount. Especially with the opportunity to leave the EU, freeing us and you from its stranglehold on the supplement-supplying industry, being such a potentially imminent prospect.
But why is the EU so damaging to how The Finchley Clinic operates? Well, to reiterate, over the course of its expansion, the EU’s bureaucratic leaders have been responsible for many directives that have limited supplement-providers’ ability to trade freely and fairly. As said, this has been explored at length on this blog before, so we invite you to read carefully what has been previously written on the issue here – but, while we’re on the subject, consider if you will, just one of these directives; the cruellest and most ridiculous one, ‘The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (No.1924/2006)’.

This directive has ensured that it’s incredibly difficult (not to mention infuriating) for businesses such as ours to accurately and adequately describe how so many of the extremely beneficial supplements we sell can improve your health. At times, it’s made it illegal to make relatively harmless – and true – claims of products; believe it or not, it’s even made it illegal to claim that water hydrates the body! All told, due to the effect of this single directive on The Finchley Clinic, we’ve seen a 90% drop in sales in some of our supplements.

Many Londoners have – and no doubt will in future – stand four-square behind Sadiq Khan as their new Mayor, not least because of what he represents and because he may well prove to be a great ambassador for such a great city in the 21st Century. However, at The Finchley Clinic, we would like to point out the implications of standing with him on voting to remain in the EU on 23rd June. If, as Sadiq wishes, the UK remains within the EU, the crippling, market-destroying grip on the supplements industry will continue to limit your choice when researching and buying products and potentially impact on your health.