March 31, 2008
“Insult to democracy and common sense” (Daily Mail, 31 March 2008)
“EU have gone too far Harriet, love” (The Sun, 1 April 2008)
“Chat up bar girl and pub will be fined” (Daily Star, 1 April 2008)
According to the papers, all pub landlords are required to prevent customers from chatting up bar staff or calling them ‘love’ or ‘darling’ and will face unlimited damages if they fail to do so. The Sun blames this on the EU: “[Harriet Harman, the Women and Equalities Minister] has sneaked this new law through without having to bother with parliament because, as you will have guessed, it is the latest rubbish to come out of the EU.” The Mail blasts in its editorial: “Nobody voted for it. It was dreamed up by unelected bureaucrats in Brussels and is now being imposed on Britain without parliamentary debate of division”. The Star is happy to hint at an …
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June 3, 2007
“EU targets huddling smokers’ last haven: the office doorway”
(Observer, 3 June 2007 pp.1,4)
“Ciggie break stubbed out”
(Daily Star, 4 June 2007, p.23)
” Smokers who refuse to quit could be denied routine surgery”
(The Daily Telegraph, 4 June 2007, pp.1,2)
There are no EU proposals to restrict smoking outdoors. These articles refer to a Green Paper, a document that invites member states and stakeholders to discuss possible policy options on health risks related to smoking. A Green Paper launches a consultation and does not propose legislation. This particular paper also clearly states that one option is taking no action whatsoever at EU level. National measures may prove sufficient to tackle the threat to public health, which all EU member states agree exists.
The consultation launched by the Green Paper ended on 1st June. The Commission will now analyse the responses and produce a report with the main findings of the consultation before considering further steps, …
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October 28, 2004
Now EU puts speed limit on children’s roundabouts (and slides must not be too steep)
(Daily Express, 28 October 2004, page 12)
Speed limits will have to be placed on children’s roundabouts in the latest bizarre EU rule imposed on Britain. Playground slides will also be placed under the bureaucratic microscope in a bid to bring the UK in line with the European guidelines. Roundabouts will be restricted to rotating at just over five yards per second – and the angle of a slide will be limited. The latest madcap scheme from Brussels was last night blasted by furious MPs, parents and children’s play campaigners who branded it ” barmy”.
PC prats put speed limit on kids’ roundabouts (Daily Star, 28 October 2004, page 7)
Barmy Brussels bureaucrats are now demanding that speed limits be enforced on kids’ playground roundabouts. The killjoy officials have also ruled that only two swings can be hung in …
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March 24, 2004
AIN’T NO MOUNTAIN SIGNS “HIGH UP”
IT’S SNOW JOKE AS EU REPORTING SLIDES DOWNHILL
‘High up’ signs on mountains row
A Euro MP claims new EU laws to prevent falls at work will mean UK mountain pursuits centres having to warn people that they are “high up”… Welsh Tory MEP Jonathan Evans said…“This is madness – most people know that when they climb a mountain they will be up high!”
(BBC News Online, 22 March 2004)
Twit peaks – Signs warn climbers: Careful, you’ll fall off
Warning signs are to be put on mountains to let climbers know they are high up. A bizarre new law from Eurocrats is intended to prevent people falling on building sites. But the result is that mountaineers may also have to be warned they are at risk of tumbling off.
(Daily Star, 24 March 2004, page 12)
Going climbing? Better use scaffolding, says EU
Climbers may have to swap ropes for scaffolding and …
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March 22, 2004
‘High up’ signs on mountains row (BBC News Online, 22 March 2004)
A Euro MP claims new EU laws to prevent falls at work will mean UK mountain pursuit centres having to warn people that they are “high up”… Welsh Tory MEP Jonathan Evans said…”This is madness – most people know that when they climb a mountain they will be up high!”
Twit peaks – Signs warn climbers: Careful, you’ll fall off (Daily Star, 24 March 2004, page 12)
Warning signs are to be put on mountains to let climbers know they are high up. A bizarre new law from Eurocrats is intended to prevent people falling on building sites. But the result is that mountaineers may also have to be warned they are at risk of tumbling off.
The EU “Working at Height” directive, aimed at protecting people such as builders, comes into force in July of this year. It was a agreed …
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January 24, 2004
Euro law storm in a teabag (Daily Star, 12 January 2004, page 5)
New Euro laws will allow Brit workers to tell their bosses what colour carpets and brand of tea bags they want. The bizarre rules could mean firms would have to consult staff on many trivial issues, which, say angry Tories, will increase costs and undermine competitiveness.
The Worker Information and Consultation Directive 2001, which must now be put into the national laws of the fifteen EU countries, obliges all businesses with over fifty employees to provide for genuine information and consultation of their workers before all major decisions at the company, especially those affecting jobs. It makes no mention of tea bags or carpets.
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March 2, 2002
EU courts Welsh fury with leek rules (The Times, 1 March 2002, page 12)
The Welsh are upset that the European Union has chosen today, St David’s Day, to interfere with one of the national symbols of Wales, the common or garden leek. European Union rules intended to make leeks conform to international standards come into effect today, and yesterday Nigel Evans, the Shadow Welsh Secretary, … said he was aghast at the “insult” that the Principality’s national emblem should be regulated by Brussels in this unfeeling way on the country’s national day.
Dai to save our leeks – Anger as EU tells Welsh all the veg must look the same (Daily Express, 2 March 2002, page 36)
Eurocrats sparked outrage among the Welsh on St David’s Day yesterday by ordering that all leeks sold in future must look the same.
Taff on Welsh leeks (Daily Star, 2 March 2002, page 7)
Batty Eurocrats ruined …
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January 17, 2001
“Pints next” (Daily Star, 17 January 2001, page 
The British pint could be BANNED if greengrocer Steve Thoburn loses his fight to flog fruit and veg by the pound… The same Euro law that means market traders must use metric instead of imperial scales could outlaw the traditional booze measure too. That means pubs across the country would have to start selling ale by the litre.
“Queen obeys Europe and adopts metric rule” (The Daily Telegraph, 20 August 2001, page 5)
The Queen has been told that the Sandringham Estate must stop selling wood in imperial measures within two weeks or trading standards officers will prosecute. The Sandringham sawmill, on the Queen’s Norfolk estate, has been selling oak and teak timber in feet and inches rather than metres, which is a criminal offence under EC metrication laws.
Metrication in the UK is not the result of British membership of the EU. In 1965, …
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March 20, 2000
Europe wants tax on taping TV at home
Families face paying a levy to video their favourite television programmes under a new European directive…
(The Sunday Telegraph, page 10, 19 March 2000)
Euro-prats want a tax on TV tapes
Meddling Eurocrats want to tax TV addicts who tape their favourite shows…
(Sunday People, page 35, 19 March 2000)
Euro tax wind-up on vids
The proposal was sneaked into the latest EU copyright directive…
(The Star, page 7, 20 March 2000)
So-called “Euro-prats” have not “sneaked” anything into the amended proposal for a Copyright Directive. In fact, the proposal explicitly states that compensation due to rightholders as a result of private copying of this kind would be “up to the Member States to decide in accordance with their legal traditions and practices”. The UK would therefore be perfectly entitled to continue its practice of not imposing any such levies.
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March 19, 2000
Euro-prats want a tax on TV tapes
Families face paying a levy to video their favourite television programmes under a new European directive…
(The Sunday Telegraph, page 10, 19 March 2000)
Euro tax wind-up on vids
The proposal was sneaked into the latest EU copyright directive…
(Daily Star, page 7, 20 March 2000)
Meddling Eurocrats want to tax TV addicts who tape their favourite shows…
(Sunday People, page 35, 19 March 2000)
So-called “Euro-prats” have not “sneaked” anything into the amended proposal for a Copyright Directive. In fact, the proposal explicitly states that compensation due to rightholders as a result of private copying of this kind would be “up to the Member States to decide in accordance with their legal traditions and practices”. The UK would therefore be perfectly entitled to continue its practice of not imposing any such levies.
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