Friday 15 June 2007

Horror! EU Health and Safety official goes mad! - # 139

The Karl Moritz Epic: episode 4.

The stage coach is ready to leave Hammersmith. As we prepare to go Karl notices the sausage seller wearing rubber gloves. "Why?" he asks, in his earnest and admirably scientific German manner. "Surely a skilled 21st century butcher is clean and knows his trade and surely nobody ever died from shaking hands or taking money".

I reply: Karl, it's this crazy health and safety rubbish that pours out of the EU sitting in Brussels. Some years ago they even tried to stop the French selling unpasteurised cheese.

Maybe it's a sign that I am ageing, but I often find the legislative stuff pouring out of the EU annoying, and I find that modern so called "health and safety" regulations have created a silly "climate of fear". This disappoints me because I was always a "committed European". Now I'm just fed up with it.

4 comments:

  1. Please stay European!!!

    Yes, there are some silly rules and too much of bureacracy, but isn't it nice to be "together"?

    These hygienic rules and behaviours are somtimes going too far, also in mind. It ends up making us too sensitive to the smallest bactery and not being able of resisting anything naturally.

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  2. I like many things about the EU but there are many things not to like: excessive regulations, excessive subsidies, the politics etc. It's not a sign of ageing....I hope.

    These are good adventures with Mr Moritz, much has changed since his last trip.

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  3. Agree with Peter - keep at it. I think being European means more than swallowing everything the bureauocrats throw at us, to me it's more about breaking down social and cultural barriers while retaining national identity (not Nationalism!), something we can all do in our own ways in personal life and business. And to get back to Bruxelles - it's a shame such a great city is tarnished by association. The people that banned Welsh Dragon Sausage because it didn't have any dragon in it

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  4. Thanks Peter and Riz and Richard for relevant and supportive comments.

    I promise to keep at it. I invested too much youhtful capital on the ideal. However, we must do something about those people who banned the "Welsh Dragon Sausage"...that's not what it's supposed to be about! Or were they trying to protect the bio-diversity of dragons?

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