Bins, child benefit and honeybees: all the fault of the EU
Posted by Daniel Hannan on 01 Jun 2008 at 12:49
Tags: EU, Brussels, Shakespeare, Bees, EU Referendum, Mail on Sunday, Richard North, child benefit
Here?s a fascinating post from EU Referendum, which picks up on a leader in the Mail on Sunday about the unseen and often malign consequences of Euro-legislation: ?Time and again?, says the MoS, ?the real reason for a major problem in our society or our economy turns out to be the European Union and the immense power it has to decide our fate in matters both large and small.?
Honey bees
Honey bees: at risk of disease due to EU directive
The paper is referring to a story about the cost of child benefit rocketing as a result of immigration from other EU states: under Brussels rules, the subsidy can be paid in any member state, allowing 36,000 Polish children to claim it without having to set foot in the United Kingdom.
With pleasing irony, notes Richard North, the editorial appears next to an op-ed by the Lib Dem front bencher Vince Cable, which laments the demise of the honeybee. Nowhere in his article does Mr Cable mention EU Directive 2004/28/EEC, ?laying down new rules on the supply of veterinary products?, which stops beekeepers buying the remedies they need to contain apian diseases.
It?s a phenomenon we see again and again. The closure of our post offices is written up with no mention of the Postal Services Directive. The rows about bin collection are reported without any acknowledgment that the problem is caused by the Landfill Directive. I learned the other day that the lengthening series of tests required to get your driving licence are also an indirect consequence of Euro-harmonisation. Car seats, Home Information Packs, vitamin bans, the rigmarole required to open a bank account ? all Brussels.
It is precisely because of informed and original posts like this that EU Referendum should stay in business. Let?s hear no more nonsense about the authors giving up in despair.
Incidentally, and on a completely different subject, a thought struck me zooming back through Castile today. In Love?s Labours Lost, Ferdinand talks of ?tawny Spain?: the perfect adjective. Yet, as far as anyone can work out, Shakespeare never visited the place. So how did he know? Once again, we can only shake our heads in wonder. As Harold Bloom puts it: ?How he was possible, I cannot know, and after two decades of teaching little else, I find the enigma insoluble.? So do we all.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/politics/danielhannan/june2008/eueverywhere.htm
