This is just a selection of the stupid, maddening, infuriating and just plain bizarre legislation spewing forth from the European Union.

Horse and pony passports.

Bombay Duck off the menu.

Millions of laboratory animals to die.

U-turn on number plates.

E.U. dictates railway policy.

Publican ticked off for selling beer in litres.

Horse and Pony Passports.

Since December 31st 2003, details of all horses, ponies and even donkeys - have been required to be recorded on a central database, where their breeding, immunisation and, if applicable, name will all be listed. Every animal will have a unique registration number and be issued with a passport.

This measure, incredibly, has the full support of the bodies that claim to represent riders. They assume that the passports will help to stop theft, control diseases and bring an end to the indiscriminate breeding of valueless moorland ponies. The cost of this will be a one-off payment of between £25 and £45, although owners may have to pay another £50 or so in vet’s fees to have their animal's physical characteristics properly authenticated.

The real reason, however, is not to protect your pony from theft or disease, nor to improve the breeding of British horses, but to ensure that no harm befalls a Frenchman if he eats one.

For this hugely expensive new initiative - costing the owners of Britain’s 975,000 recreational horses at least £75 million - came about not to aid horses, but to prevent the Euro food chain being contaminated with “minimum residue levels” of equine drugs. Because between 10,000 and 12,000 horses a year are slaughtered for human consumption abroad, all the horses in the country must be made to comply with the regulation and horse-owners face fines and, possibly, imprisonment if they refuse

Existing European regulations meant that all Britain had to do was to ensure that equines going into the human food chain have registration documents like cattle, showing their immunisation and treatment history. DEFRA though decided to interpret the passport scheme so that it drew in all the horses in the country, including the thoroughbred racehorse, which has the most detailed documentation in the world.

For many years, the horse world has sought to have the horse reclassified as an agricultural animal, to end the imposition of top business rates on riding schools’ premises. This has been repeatedly ignored by the Government, so it surprising that the horse authorities are so convinced it will be entirely benign with the passport data. Hardly surprising when you consider the British Government’s excessive zeal in imposing every one of the EU’s regulations.

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Bombay Duck off the menu.

In 1997 Bombay Duck was banned by the European Commission. Bombay Duck is a delicacy eaten as an accompaniment to curry. It is dried fish that is usually served fried. It has an acquired pungent taste adored by curry lovers.

The EC admitted that it had no "sanitary" evidence against the product and the UK Public Health Laboratory Service confirmed that there are no recorded cases of food poisoning, or bacterial contamination, associated with Bombay Duck. It was banned because the EC only allows fish imports from India from approved freezing and canning factories. Bombay Duck is not produced in factories but in 'cottage' industries, usually small family concerns. The EC insisted that to be fit for export, the producers would have to pay for the services of E.U. appointed officers to inspect the product and provide fumigation certificates, phytosanitary certificates, Chamber of Commerce certificates and an export agency certificates. Needless to say most producers couldn't foot the bill. The total value of this trade with India in 1994 was £42,000. Hardly a major industry. The main objection by the E.U. was that part of the production process includes drying the fish in the open air. In 2001 the E.U. relented on this ruling and allowed this air drying provided the packing was done in approved premises. 

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Millions of laboratory animals to die.

As a result of the new E.U. Chemical Directive, the re-testing of 30,000 chemicals must be carried out by scientists. This is estimated to involve the use and subsequent death of up to 20 million animals. The vast majority of these chemicals have been tested previously, but because the results are not available to the E.U. they must be repeated. Britain is powerless to stop this at present because the Government will simply rubber stamp this directive as it does all others. Another case of Britain having no say in its own affairs.

The scientist themselves have condemned these experiments as "expensive, time consuming and of dubious scientific value". The three main British parties all turn a deaf ear to this issue refusing to make direct comment.

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U-turn on number plates.

Have you ever wondered why this symbol has been stuck on the end of your vehicle number plate. It is widely used throughout the European Union and represents the E.U. flag above the international vehicle registration of the different nations. Many millions of vehicles in Britain display this symbol. What can you do about it if you consider its presence to be inappropriate? For a start, it is not compulsory. If it was, then ALL vehicles would have to display it. There was a move in 2000 to make it a criminal offence to display any other national flag on your number plate. The official reason for this was that it could be visually confusing, and it also meant that there was less room for the number itself. This is of course complete nonsense when you consider that other national flags take up exactly the same space as the E.U. flag. The real reason is nothing more than propaganda. The Eureaucrats in Brussels and Strasbourg know that they are having great difficulty, especially in  Britain, of selling the idea of a 'Euro identity'. They must, therefore give you every opportunity to see the flag. Indeed, apart from number plates, there is the hideous sight of the Euro flag flying beside or, even worse, in place of national flags on public buildings throughout Britain. 

So what could be better from their point of view than putting it on the number plate of the vehicle that you are stuck behind in that two hour traffic jam, and on the front and back of YOUR OWN vehicle which you see several times a day.

They must be resisted. If you oppose this attempt at Euro brainwashing, you can legally replace your number plates so that they have no flag at all, or you can replace the Euro flag with either of the four national flags of the United Kingdom. These are the Union flag, Welsh flag, St. Andrews Cross, St. Georges Cross. If you buy a car from a dealer, be it new or second hand, that has the E.U. flag on the number plate, hold the sale until they fit a plate without it. Remember, the customer is always right.

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E.U. dictates railway policy.

In the early 1990s, the John Major government began the break up of British Rail. The E.U. directive 91/440/EEC required that rail, track and signalling be separated from train operations. This was enthusiastically implemented by the Conservative government, even though the measures had no relevance to the U.K. railway system. Railtrack was created with overall responsibility for the rail network. Licenses were granted to Train Operating Companies (TOCs) who would pay railtrack for access to the infrastructure.

Many heralded a new era for Britain's railways, a welcome departure from the days of the union dominated, inefficient, out dated railway of old. Advances in technology meant that the new railway would be amongst the safest in the world. Track and signaling maintenance would be contracted out to various companies. 

This fragmentation eventually led to serious problems. A series of fatal accidents exposed a lack of investment across the network, a situation not helped by the disclosure of vast salaries for Railtrack's top bosses. The public's perception of both Railtrack and its contractors was that they were putting profit above safety.

Today our railway lurches from one crisis to another. Railtrack was put into administration in 2002, a move which many see as the return to a fully integrated, state owned railway.

The conservative government were therefore only a willing accomplice to the destruction of our railways by the E.U. The present Labour government, fierce opponents of privatisation when they were in opposition, show little sign of improving the system. Has the lesson been learned? No. New E.U. plans mean massive extra spending for alterations which will not be funded by the government or the customer. Rail experts predict that all but the busiest lines will be under threat by these measures. Lord Beeching eat your heart out.  

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Publican ticked off for selling beer in litres.

Trading standards officers have forced British shopkeepers to go metric and have prosecuted them and confiscated imperial scales on numerous occasions. The owner of an Austrian theme bar, however,  has been told by the same trading standards officers that it is illegal for her to sell beer in litres.

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