Sent to the Solihull Times and Sutton Coldfield News

I have given examples of EU directives closing us down and have received comments about "UK Gold Plating". But it is not just this aspect that I see as the problem but the lack of experience of the people making these rules, for example, a Portuguese restaurateur wrote to me: “We no longer have the tank of salt water with clams in the restaurant, remember they looked as if they were spitting at the customers when they opened and let out the sand? We had men in collars and ties here, enforcing EU regulations. They said clams must go dry into the refrigerator under EU rules, not the tank. I asked if they had ever worked in a kitchen and they said - no, we are enforcing the regulations. The EU is telling me to change old Portuguese traditions which are there for good reason, these little fellows are alive, fresh and cleaning themselves. Why do Brussels force me to change what is good?”

He explained that clams live in the sand, they are caught in the sand and they eat the sand to sift out their food, so consequently they have sand in their bodies. The old tradition is to place them into sea water to allow them to spit out the sand, bacteria and other bad things, but now they must be put dry into a refrigerator… “The little fellows wonder why it is so cold; they stay closed and die there two days later. They have no chance to spit out the sand or clean themselves so they taste crunchy!” “In the tank, they were happy, when cooked they had no chance to feel anything but now they die slowly in the refrigerator and are unclean, is this EU progress?” Did the committee that passed that rule have experience or were they there for expenses?

MEP comment: There were two clams in a tank. They see an EU inspector. One says to the other “How do we fire this thing?”