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Thu 30 Jan, 2003 11:16 am
Have we Brits got it all wrong again ?
Has Europe gone crazy ?
Is the earth flat ?
Britain 'is not an island' claims EU
By Richard Savill
(Filed: 23/01/2003)
European Commission statisticians have decided that Britain is not an island. They say an island can not have fewer than 50 permanent residents, can not be attached to the mainland by a rigid structure, can not be less than a kilometre from a mainland and, crucially in the case of Britain, can not be home to the capital of an EU state.
Their study has raised fears that Anglesey and Skye, which are linked by bridges, and Lundy, which has a population of 18, could lose their island status.
Paul Roberts, Lundy's general manager, said: "It's an absolute nonsense to say we are not an island. "Lundy means 'Puffin Island' in Norse and nothing can take that away from us."
Caroline Jackson, a Tory MEP for the South-West, said: "There is no smoke without fire. If there is anything in this, it may be that the Commission is trying to cut down on expenditure ahead of enlargement, by cutting back on the priorities island communities are sometimes given.
"The suggestion that an island is not an island because it is too small or has a fixed link to the mainland seems to be eccentric."
The European Commission said last night that the Union did not use physical geography as a criterion for regional aid. It said a definition of islands was used in a technical study by statisticians "looking at the economic situation of the islands of Europe".
European Commission
Lundy Island
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003. Terms & Conditions of reading.
Ah, Boss, as you contemplate (eagerly, i'm sure) the wonders of European Unification, do not forget the joys of bureaucratic decision-making and study. Some day, all of you boys and girls in good ol' Europa may well be joined in a Union not unlike the New Nighted States. When that day comes, you might benefit from recalling someone's definition of a camel (forget who): a horse designed by committee.
Huh? People can do that? Just decide that something is not an island without any change in the geography? Welcome to the EU.
Setanta === I think that the E.U. was designed by the same people who designed the camel. The beaurocrats live in a fantasy world, the Land of Mind Over Matter. A concept were everything can be manipulated. Numbers massaged, cultures cloned to the lowest common denominator. It is a power monger's job creation scheme for kith and kin. Perpetual Insanity and ceaseless paperwork to match.
Roberta, geography in the minds of civil servants and their masters, seems as fluid as a power shower. The reality though, as we know, is cast somewhat firmly in more substantial material.
Once again the lunatics have taken over asylum.
You could have great career prospects over there, Boss--in the land of the blind, a one-eyed man will be king . . .
camels actually work exceedingly well....
Maybe the design team got lucky for once Dlowan. The mob in Brussels couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery
I like that one, Boss--reminds me of an American "old saying": couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel . . .
Setanta -- nice one. similar to the one that says --- He couldn't organise a................. no stop. this a family site
Perhaps this is just the reply to the fact that British "chocolate" is equal to chocolate?
I'm sure there are hundreds more of such burocratique nonsenses in EU-law, but not just only there!
However, this is neither a law, act of disposal or by-law.
OAK, since y'all have that tunnel thingy fer visitin' the French, does that mean that "storied isle" is no longer an island? I want to be sure i understand the European world view correctly . . .
Yes Setanta, it's coz of the tunnel. they say if there is a fixed crossing then we can't technicaly be an island. That's how I understand it. Brussels gets the 'ump with us coz we argue too much. If we schoolkids, we'd get detention every night.
Anyway, I think it's a bloody daft idea. And how much money did they spend pontificating this nonsence.
Walter, why do we have to have so much uniformity ? i can understand it in engineering, medicine and hi-tech things but not if they are going to change culture and the day to day things of people's lives
We certainly must have have this uniformity, since some thousand highest paid civil servants want do something, like describing on ten pages, how the seat on a tractor has to look like.
Just remebering the day, when I missed the one ferry on Skye and had to rush to the other end of the then island to catch the other one (to Fort Williams), using cattle grids as rocket ramps ... :wink:
Are senseless activities of the numerous EU officials a result of the Parkinson's laws implementation, or their very existence is an original European way to decrease the unemployment rate?
This tractor seat Walter. Does anybody ever ask the tractor driver what he wants
"Directive 78/763/EEC
1. Scope: for the purpose of this Directive, "agricultural or forestry tractor" means any motor vehicle fitted with wheels or endless tracks and having at least two axles, the main function of which lies in its tractive power and which is specially designed to tow, push, carry or power certain tools, machinery or trailers intended for agricultural or forestry use. It may be equipped to carry a load and be fitted with passenger seats. Directive 76/763/EEC applies only to the specified tractors which are fitted with pneumatic tyres and have two axles, a maximum design speed of between 6 and 25 km/h and a track width of 1 250 mm or more.
2. Each seat must be so placed that the passenger is in no danger and creates no impediment to driving the tractor. Each seat must be firmly fixed and properly attached according to the type of tractor, to a structural member of the tractor (chassis, roll-over protection device, platform, etc.). The structural member concerned must be sufficiently strong to support a laden passenger seat. The Annexes to the Directive contain detailed rules for construction."
Asking the tractor driver? That would mean to use common sense!
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