Ther Germans want the D-Mark back

It looks like Germany is starting to fall out of love with the EU as a majority of Germans want their old currency back. Possibly the fall out from trying to impose a single currency over a collection of different countries is getting to them, especially with the realisation that they are going to be the ones expected to pay for it.

The efficiency of EU regulation

More highly useful regulation from the EU which for some reason the country never before found itself needing before. The EU has is in the process of deciding that it will no longer be legal to sell multiple items, for example a dozen eggs. From now on it would need to be sold as a single unit. According to the Telegraph:

The changes would cost the food and retail industries millons of pounds as items would have to be individually weighed to ensure the accuracy of the label.

The Grocer said food industry sources had described the move as "bonkers" and "absolute madness". Its editor, Adam Leyland, said the EU had "created a multi-headed monster".

The Food Standards Agency indicated it opposed the change and that the regulation had yet to be finalised.

I'm sure that those in favour of the EU will claim that this regulation was already needed and the government was going to do it anyway therefore we are actually reducing regulation by taking this to the EU level. Even though currently we do not do this and the national regulator does not want it so I don't see it myself.

Labour minister's porn on expenses

Oh dear, another Labour minister has been revealed to have been buyng porn on his expenses. While they were in office Labour never lost an opportunity to create more moralising laws against porn in order to 'send a message', a message that it now turns out to be 'we are all a bunch of smut addicted hypocrits'. Personally I have absolutely no problem with his using porn or porn in general, unlike Labour. What he chose to get up to in the privacy of his bedroom is his business alone (or occationally with his wife). However I do object to being made to pay for his porn. As a minister he was in the top 10% of earners and so would have had plenty of his own money for smut without needing to use any of mine.

The annals of obvious research

In a result that surprises nobody, on average lefties are clueless about economics.

Using the EU to ban tobacco

Oh dear, a Belgian judge is trying to use the EU to ban tobacco across the whole of the EU. I'm sure our political elites will shed no tears over this latest exercise in using the EU as democracy by-pass mechanism, they have been moving towards banning tobacco for years. I'm equally sure that criminal gangs will be over joyed should it actually work as they are handed a huge market of people that still want to smoke and can no longer get hold of their drug of choice legally. The people that should be worried about this is everybody else.

Afganistan as it was

Today Afganistan is like a place cut off from civilisation. A medeaval backwater who's only export is opium. But it wasn't always like that, it used to be civilised. It is amazing how far backwards a combination of war communism and islam can push a country.

The Cumbrian Massacre

In their response to the cumbrian massacre the Tories have shown that they really could be less bad than Labour, by giving a measured response that this country already has the strictest gun control rules anywhere in the world other than Japan and further restrictions are simply not needed. Events like this are incredibly rare, which is why it has made the news, and banning stuff in a knee jerk response to staggeringly rare events is simply never a good idea. Had Labur still been in power their response would have been very different. Labour's knee jerk response would have been to ban stuff and double the length of time people can be held without charge, because Labour's response to everything was to ban stuff and lock people up without a trial or even charge.