Richard Lack's Blog

We're all just being silly

A while back the EU Commission began their counter-attack against all our nasty tabloids who'd been making up stories about petty directives emanating from Brussels.

You might recall the headlines regarding Cucumber Curvature Directives and Bendy Banana Legislation. Well the Commission wasn't going to stand for this ridicule any longer and spent time and money issuing FAQ documents with titles like "Europe - The 10 biggest myths" to organisations such as Britain In Europe. They stated categorically that that there was no such thing as banana legislation being drafted and that we're all just being very silly. For a while the battle was beginning to be won and those of us who continued to bleat about excessive bureaucracy started to look a bit reactionary. "Check your facts next time!" was what we'd hear as we droned on about the pointy-headed drones in Brussels.

Funny then, hilarious in fact, that I've just found this document on Defra's own website. EU Directive 1677/88, clearly states that the maximum curvature of a class 1 cucumber must be no more than 10mm for each 10cm of length. In other words - cucumbers, like Italian Ministers, are allowed to be 10% bent. Those of us with a penchant for bananas should be glad to know that we're taken care of under EU Directive 2557/94, ruling that bananas may not be of "excessive curvature"

Surprised? As you splutter into your beer down at the Dog and Duck tonight you might also reflect on the old fallacy that the British pint itself would be outlawed and re-christened '0.57 of a litre'. The original author of the article in the Daily Telegraph, Daniel Hannan MEP received a terse call from an official at the UK Office of the Commission. "Of course it won't be illegal to sell pints" he was told. "Just as long as it isn't called a pint."
Whatever the case for or against Britain moving towards ever closer union, we should all reflect on the utter waste that is involved in drafting a 4 page directive on banana curvature and tranlating it into 25 languages. The mind boggles at the tens of thousands of Euros of taxpayers money being spent on this endless stream of nonsense.

EU Survey from www.yourparty.org

As many of you know, I sit on the interim board of an organisation called Your Party (www.yourparty.org). Your Party's aim is to promote greater democracy and public participation in the political process. To give everyone a real say in the decisions (local, national and international) that affect their lives.

To mark the European elections (on June 10th) we have just launched a survey on Europe : http://www.yougov.com/asp_bespollprojects/ypr/ypr040101009/1.asp

The survey asks the question no-one else seems to be asking : what do YOU want from Europe and the EU ?

I know the EU isn't everyone's favourite topic of conversation but PLEASE don't ignore this. I'm assured by people who've taken the survey that it's both enjoyable and thought-provoking ! And it hardly takes any time - there's a short (1 minute) and a long (3 minutes) version.

It's also important. Everyone will have different views on the EU but, with 70% of new UK law coming from the EU, it affects all of us. There's also a huge debate going on about the future of the EU and Britain's role in it. But how can we decide on the best way forward, on what an appropriate constitution (if any) should look like, if we don't know what kind of Europe we want in the first place? This survey looks to answer that fundamental question.

Once we have the results we're going to lobby the EU and the politicians to address the views expressed in the survey - and the more people who take the survey the stronger our voice will be. So please take it - and please tell your friends and contacts about it by forwarding this survey to them.

EU Constitution

Below is my response to a blog on www.reengage.org about the necessity for a referendum on the EU Constitution, and www.yourparty.org's views on the matter:

Seb,

You make some very valid comments. It's certainly true to say that polls can be misleading, and for as long as there have been polling companies there have been political parties that pick and choose those which they percieve to support them in their aims due to the demographic they are composed of.

YourParty have long been aware that there is a crucial difference between a poll and a vote. Polls tend not to be taken as seriously as votes and have a lower burden of accountability. They are useful for putting together a quick snapshot of opinion but they cannot be relied upon for policy forming for a variety of reason. They'll have their place on the www.yourparty.org site but will have nothing to do with formal voting.

YourParty.org will rely on a carefully audited voting system for all areas of policy formation and will make sure that all votes happen in the light of an informed and impartial debate about the issues at stake. It's the nature of voting that many people will come to the argument with pre-conceieved idea formed through the media and what they might have heard down the pub for instance. It's our aim to fill in the gaps in understanding and make sure that members are well informed when they eventually come to take a formal vote on this or any other issue.

What I'm trying to underline here is that YourParty.org won't be letting it's members make up policy through a series of 'quick polls' If you go to the site today you'll see that there's no option to take polls at all for this very reason. The majority of work our technical team is doing right now is in designing deliberative policy formation tools to make sure all future votes are properly framed. This takes time and effort but we're determined to get it right rather than fudging it with polls.

I take your point about an internet group manipulating and taking advantage of our polls, and also your mention of our members being 'relatively affluent technologically literate'. A few points worth noting here:

1: In order to vote we require a valid photo ID. More than is required for postal votes.
2: The internet is now being used by well over half of UK citizens. Perhaps more than turned out to vote at the last general election.
3: It's not true to say that they are mainly young or affluent any longer. 'Silver surfers' number in the millions and many of them are members of the party. Anecdotally - the first press interview Dan Thompson gave on launch day after the Today programme was for an over 50's site (http://www.50connect.co.uk/)
4: The web works for us right now because the costs associated are relatively low. As we grow in size we fully intend to support other methods of participation such as phone, post and local meetings.
5: You could argue that the turnout for the last general election was not refelective of the UK as a whole. It being disproportionately older people who had time on their hands to go out and vote, and with less than representative turnout among ethinic minorities.

Finally - I've done some research on the Eurobarmoter poll and have to admit I can't find the full results. I'd be interested to see how many voted for the constitution if 51% voted yes and presumably a fair percentage said 'dunno'

In any case - we haven't yet polled our members on the EU constitution or started the process of voting and policy formation. Until then I don't have confidence in any polling organisation particularly except for general illustration of the need for a referendum in the first instance.