Crying over spilt milk

Travesty...
Betrayal...
The end of British civilisation as we know it...

Yes friends, we are about to mark the passing of that great British institution, the pint of milk.

According to today's Sunday Times, this coming week the European Parliament will pass laws which threaten the British "pinta". (Good to see the MEPs doing something useful to earn their keep. See)

Apparently laws aimed at harmonising the size of packaged food are set to put the traditional pint carton on death row, in favour of the more Euro-friendly half litre variety, a whole 68 millilitres smaller.

There is widespread fear that the average British milk consumer will be ripped off as prices are not lowered to take into account the smaller quantity of liquid.

But it doesn't stop there.

The laws will also affect the much loved sliced loaf, stable of the British breakfast table for generations.

But fear not, Dave's Tories are on the case, tabling amendments to stop the motion.

One Tory MEP said "Traditions are important to us in Britain and I can quite understand and I can quite understand people getting upset when they see those traditions under threat. I am in favour of protecting consumers, but in this case, the best thing is to stick with what consumers know best."

The more significant problem is that the cost of replacing milk bottles. One dairy said, "If we were unable to use the pint bottle at all it would basically mean the end of doorstep delivery."

Hasn't Tesco done that already?

Tap dancing

While browsing the ether, I came accross a fellow blogger's dilema.

Why do the British still insist on having two taps instead of one combined one?

Good question, and one which I am completely unaware of the answer.

I appreciate that this is indeed a problem. Having to constantly switch between freezing cold and scaldingly hot is not the best thing to wake up to, but I imagine that, if used correctly (i.e. fill sink with water) it uses far less water than having it juts pour down the sink...

What is more worrying however, is that someone has taken the time to write a wikipedia entry!

Just in case you had any doubts...

Politicians, and other troublemakers

Under new rules, those MEPs who are disruptive or heckle during parliamentary debates will have to face the consequences...

This may lead to them losing the right to speak, temporary suspension, or the docking of ten day's pay. The idea is, that having 25 different cultures (and I apologise to any minority cultures for not having time to count them), it can be a bit of a mess in the debating chamber. Aparently the European Parliament wants "vibrant free speech", which is not "offensive or inflammatory".

According to the Eurosceptics this is merely an attempt to crush opposition. UKIP MEP Nigel Farage says he sees heckling as part of his job.

Author Nicholas Comfort says heckling has a serious democratic job to do.
"The point of heckling is basically to puncture politicians who think they can get away with it," he said. "A politician can be making a point they consider to be perfectly, perhaps a bit pompously, and someone will just come in completely from off-field, which destroys the argument and makes them look ridiculous."

What I think is more important is this whole 10 days docking of salary. If we take that as being a third of a month and the monthly salary as shown below, well you do the maths... Not going to put them below the breadline is it.

Also, can someone tell me why the Italians earn so much more than everyione else!!!

Poll position

According to a recent BBC poll, the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Durão Barroso, is the most powerful man in Britain, with 22 percent of the votes. Rupert Murdoch comes second, slightly ahead of the British parliament. Tony Blair came in fifth, scoring one percent more than Google!

I suspect that this has something to do with the budget debacle just before Christmas, still it's interesting to see that people do see Europe as a actor in British affairs, which goes against a lot of opinion which seems to think that most of what goes on in Brussels is irrelevant in Britain.