Interesting Links for 20-05-2013

[andrewducker]

• EU to ban olive oil jugs from restaurants
  (tags: europe oil )
• What's The #1 Killer Of Girls Aged 15-19 Worldwide?
  (tags: death pregnancy children )
• Scotland's immigration minister opposed to stupid London policies.
  (tags: scotland uk immigration )
• Choosing Minecraft Over Disney
  (tags: minecraft children disney )
• Best Voting Method _Ever_
  (tags:

Comments

[xenophanean]

The olive-oil jugs thing is out and out peculiar. I think it's so specific that a national government should quail on making a ruling on it, let alone a multi-national one. For the EU to be doing so makes them look like they're governed by minority interests, and thus not really fit to govern a continent. It also has some quite alarming implications. It seems to set a precedent which, taken to its logical conclusion, could outlaw anything which isn't presented in a sealed, branded container. (E.g. it seems to imply that by the same logic, draught beer should be outlawed, as it could potentially be faked).

The EU is a massive government, so needs to be extremely careful with what laws it passes. Nitpicking laws, which are also sweeping, and seemingly arbitrarily targeted can only be harmful. This law certainly seems like an incredibly stupid thing to do. If there's arguments that actually totally sensible, I'd be glad to hear them, because this plays so nicely to Eurosceptics.

[bart_calendar]

I'd argue that over the past 4 years the EU has made it perfectly clear they are incapable of running a continent.

[xenophanean]

I see your point, I'm now not at all keen on them. That said, I don't want the UK to leave the EU as I think it'd be awful to both our economy and our personal freedoms.

[bart_calendar]

That's the rub. The EU is run by awful people who do things that benefit nobody but Germany - and will actually hurt Germany in the long term - but at the moment all alternatives are worse.

It will be interesting to see what will happen when either Spain or Greece eventually goes fascist.

[bart_calendar]

Fuck. I don't even want to think about the strikes and riots that will happen in France once the olive oil ban happens.

The one thing I like about Hollande is that I smell tear gas much less regularly than I did with Sarko in office - but there is no way in hell that people won't completely lose their shit over the olive oil thing.

[a_pawson]

Will anyone bother to enforce it? One of the criticisms often levelled at EU regulations is that certain countries enforce them, while others just can't be bothered. The general perception is that places like Germany, Belgium of the UK enforce them, but nations like Italy, France or Greece just ignore the ones they don't agree with.

[bracknellexile]

The Olive Oil article feels so much like it came from The Daily Mash that I can't honestly believe it's true. It's up there with the "too-bendy bananas" and "hard-hats for acrobats" euro-stories in terms of incredulity. I suspect the actual legislation is fairly benign and Torygraph journalists have run with it to its illogical conclusion just to produce another anti-Europe story.

[andrewducker]

I went looking for a debunking, and couldn't find one...

[andrewducker]

See Abigail's comment directly underneath yours.

[bracknellexile]

Ah, so it's actually for a good reason in terms of cutting fraud and protecting the genuine industry and the manufacturers in Southern Europe, not just to annoy the middle-classes. Cheers.

If only someone had reported it as, "EU ruling protects thousands of jobs and millions of euros in fraud-ravaged olive oil industry" instead of "middle-class diners, be outraged at Brussels (again) because meals will be not quite the same as before! Aren't they silly people we'd be better off without?"

[abigail_n]

The olive oil article intersects with a recent local scandal in which it was revealed that several brands of supermarket olive oil had false labels reporting incorrect purity (in some cases, the oil was actually at a purity grade considered unfit for human consumption). Turns out that olive oil forgery is a multi-million dollar industry all over the Mediterranean, and one of the points made was that restaurants will claim to be using olive oil in dishes or at the table, but the oil is actually adulterated, or even regular oil with added flavoring (so the claim that customers will surely be able to tell if they're served substandard or fake oil leaves me pretty unsympathetic).

In other words, this seems to me like an attempt to address a real problem, but in such a sweeping, high-handed way that it will cause as many problems as it solves.

[andrewducker]

Aaah. Thank you!

Fake Oil

[lsanderson]

Fake oil, fake wine, these things have been going on since trading was invented.

[akicif]

All makes sense, now....

[ipslore]

Minecraft vs Disney: wait, sarcasm is a corrupting influence on the kids now? Buh-wah?

[alextfish]

Sarcasm on its own? Not especially. A flippant attitude where sarcasm is the default? Not really desirable. Certainly very common, but still avoidable. I've known a number of teenagers from church who avoid the contemptuous, all-pervading negativity to a commendable extent. (I have no particular reason to believe the parent in that article is churchgoing, but she seems to have similar aims for her daughter as I do for mine.)