I started reading this Gary Younge piece and pulled up short. What’s he talking about?

Just a few days before Labour swept to power in 1997, Tony Blair was
visiting a health centre in Brentford when a Sikh man approached him
and asked: "What about us Asians?" Had Blair stopped to listen, as my
colleague Jonathan Freedland did, he would have learned that the man
was concerned about a possible EU directive that would have stopped him
from wearing his turban under his motorbike helmet. If ever there was
an ideal opportunity to triangulate, this was it. So long as the turban
did not violate British safety laws, why should the EU interfere? With
racial sensitivity he nods to the left, with a well-placed jab at
Europe he nods to the right. But Blair had an entirely different
audience in mind. "You’re part of Britain," he snapped. "We’ll treat
you the same as everyone else."

The exemption has been in place since 1976. Now while I yield to no man in my despisal of the way in which EU regulation overides domestic, this does seem a very odd one for Gary to pick on. For, according to the Met, the exemption is still in place. So while Blair may in fact have said that, that’s not what actually happened in legislation. So an odd example to use I think.