[Alex63]

Off topic: I thought (probably incorrectly) that the EU required that the cookie preferences for sites were supposed to offer "Reject All" if they offered "Accept All". I realize The New Statesman may not need to comply since Brexit, but their opt-out logic seems almost to be calculated to make people give up before they opt out of everything. Net result is that I didn't read an article that might have interested me, and I didn't see any of their advertisements because I didn't want to be tracked.

[goodcanadian]

The cookie law still applies in the UK because it has not been revoked. IIRC, there was a ruling recently that it must be as easy to reject all as it is to accept all. Not every site has been updated/fixed; I still see dark patterns, frequently, but I do feel like it has gotten better.

[red_admiral]

I believe you are correct, definitely in terms of the spirit of the law and probably in terms of the text. It's just that there haven't been any landmark legal cases yet to settle this point (further complicated by the fact that the EU is more civil law than common law).