Proving that stupidity in government sneers at national and geographic bounds

[unixronin]

In a move planned to show its solidarity with other government bodies in findign time to fiddle while Rome burns, the EU has approved new regulations that will prohibit selling eggs by the dozen.

The new rules will mean that instead of packaging telling shoppers a box contains six eggs, it will show the weight in grams of the eggs inside, for example 372g.

[...]  The rules will not allow both the weight and the quantity to be displayed.

So you can't even mark the package "One half dozen large eggs, net weight 372g."  And I suppose the next refinement will require every carton of eggs to be individually weighed and marked with its actual weight, because, you know, you can't put 12.07 eggs in a package to make the weight come out to a nice round consistent number every time.  UK food industry experts described the new EU ruling as "bonkers" and "absolute madness", and it's hard to disagree.  There are products, like eggs, car tires etc, that it simply makes no sense to sell by weight.  Can you imagine walking into your local tire store and asking for 112kg of tires, or going to the bicycle store for 92g of replacement spokes?

Crises come and crises go, the world economy melts down, the Eurozone is facing potential collapse as bankrupt member-nation economies implode, Shari'a law is metastasizing into European nations, but never let it be said that the EU Parliament is too busy to find the time for stupid, pointless crap like saying that you can't sell a dozen eggs as a dozen eggs any more.

Comments

[masgramondou.livejournal.com]

I should note that my BS meter has pinged on this story because eggs are sold by the dozen/half dozen in at least Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France and Germany as well as the UK (see comments at http://mreugenides.blogspot.com/2010/06/eggstraordinary-bureaucracy.html ). In other words this "UK exception" claim is bogus.

If such a new regulation has been passed then it will clearly affect more than the UK. It could be that everywhere in Europe is gong to change but I'm guessing the greater likelihood is that the regulation is scrapped now that people have discovered it.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It could be that everywhere in Europe is gong to change but I'm guessing the greater likelihood is that the regulation is scrapped now that people have discovered it.

One would hope so, because this is absurd. It's lawmaking for the sake of lawmaking.

[lebo-superman.livejournal.com]

Which forwards my theory that any government, once formed, will begin to create laws (whether sane or not) just for the sake of justifying their own existence.