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Originally Posted by Damien
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Err ... correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't that page, after labelling regulations on banana curvature to be a myth, go on to say that the EU
has made a directive concerning the curvature of bananas?
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The European Commission was asked by national agriculture ministers and the industry to draft legislation in this area. Following extensive consultation with the industry, the proposed quality standards were adopted by national ministers in Council in 1994.
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I think we need to be very careful with our terminology here, because it is for certain that B. Liar and others are going to continue their tactic of denouncing those with anti-EU leanings as 'myth-makers' and 'doom-sayers' rather than grappling with the issues.
Fact: There is an EU directive which determines how curved bananas are allowed to be. This is not a myth. It happened. It is the law.
Fact: The EU believes it is
reasonable for this directive to exist, in the name of harmonising the differing nationally set standards of banana quality that previously existed.
If the EU wants to claim that the Sun's claim is a myth ('A fictitious story, person, or thing,' according to
Dictionary.com) the only way they can do that is by showing that there is no such directive. Clearly they cannot do this. Instead of crying 'myth!', what they ought to be doing, and what Tony B. Liar and other pro-EU people should be doing, is to stop apologising for the EU and start saying why it is a good thing.
For example, debate: Is banana curvature sufficiently important that we need a separate decision-making organisation in Brussels and Strasbourg to rule on it? What is wrong with national Governments making such rulings? Does it really put the single markey in jepoardy if bananas sold in the UK are slightly more curved than those that may be sold in France?