THE Daily Mail has struck yet another blow for jingoism and anti-Europe sentiment with its latest ‘exclusive’.
The ‘EU is to ban selling a dozen eggs from our shops’, its headlines screamed at the weekend, starting a firestorm of protest all over the internet.
The Food Standards Agency, the Federation of Bakers, the British Retail Consortium, “one major food supplier”, another ‘industry source” and The Grocer trade magazine were all enlisted by the Mail in the campaign to “save” a dozen eggs for Britain.
The wonderfully-named Metric Martyrs Defence Fund also weighed in, along with our new Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.
Britain needed to stand up to the crazed Brussels Eurocrats who had ordered that eggs should be sold by weight instead of number – and by their metric weight into the bargain!
Outrageous.
Except, as it turns out today, therere is no such plan. The weight of food must be labelled, but the number of eggs, (or bread rolls, or fish fingers come to that), can still be included.
So, as the Daily Telegraph described it: “Eggs by the dozen will be allowed, says EU”.
That’s alright then.
Still, more than 1,000 Daily Mail readers were sufficiently motivated by its ‘exclusive’ to post comments on the paper’s web site.
And the social networks were a-twitter with pun-filled point-scoring against the EU.
No doubt, the Mail were glad to be stirring up more anti-European sentiment amongst the great British public.
But perhaps, of even greater value, this diverting story has distracted attention from the very real and damaging cuts which the current Government is making in public services, upon which most people rely.
- Editor’s Note: We have deliberately resisted the temptation to indulge in any egg puns.
