This. Either UK joins with the same rules as everyone else. No opt outs, no sterilng, or they should stay as they are and not join at all.
I wouldn’t want my grandchildren face the same shitshow I did.

If anyone wants privacy while maintaing a smart home, then Home Assistant is the solution. Its not adopted widely because it has a learning curve and it needs a bit (or a lot) poking around to make it work. It also has a voice assistant that is not AI powered ( but it could be supplemented by a local LLM if you really want to). A big rabit hole if anyone is interested to go to.