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EU – It really is getting sillier by the day

By Editor
May 24th, 2013 at 10:42 am | 7 Comments | Posted in EU

The Telegraph reported yesterday that EU is to drop the idiotic “olive oil jug ban” after public outcry.  In case you missed the story, Brussels bureaucrats had decided that it was in the interests of the consumer to ban the use of jugs, cruets or bowls to serve olive oil in restaurants. It was justified as necessary because of alleged “frequent” fraud in restaurants and we, the public, required help for our own good. Never mind that such legislation could well have seen the end to many small artisan olive oil producers who rely on the restaurant trade for their livelihood and that no one (other than industrial olive producers) wanted it.

As it turns out the EU had no “evidence” of malpractice – just anecdotes. Eventually criticism from Holland and Germany led by Jose Manuel Barroso, the EU commission president, (and whose father was a small artisan olive oil producer), managed to halt the legislation.

Two questions. How on earth did this insane proposition ever get as far as it did? And where was the UK on all of this? We abstained from the vote. Questions must surely be asked.

Liberal Democrats have defended the European Union for as long as this blog has been in existence (and some). But such stories appear all to regularly, and the excesses of Brussels seem to be growing rather than diminishing. No wonder the public’s appetite for the EU is at an all time low.

Read more on the issue here: “It’s Silly, Costly, And Evidence Free – But Let’s Make It Law Anyway”

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