Europe

Half a litre of bitter please

Has the European Union’s leadership learnt nothing from those referendum defeats?

The Observer has learnt that the EC has ordered the government to announce a date when it will abolish the use of pints, miles and even Britain’s farmers’ acres.

Isn’t this typical of the problem that those of us with some sort of instinctive and vague level of support for the ‘European project’ always face? Those who run the EU always manage to set up their (and our) opponents with a nice gently rolling ball across the face of the unguarded goal.

And the annoying thing is that its so utterly pointless. When did you ever hear a foreign tourist complain that the pub served him a pint? Do the EU people know that in Italy some locals actually order, rather proudly, a pinta rather than a media?

And what will happen if Britain was to be forced to make the switch and instead of a pint we had the EU conforming half-litre? Do the pen pushers in Belgium really understand the social stigma associated with asking for a half?

As I said after the referendum defeats – we, vaguely pro-European lefties have to stop going into bat for the bureaucrats in Brussels just because the Sun and the Daily Mail are steaming into them.

Especially when they set themselves up for such pulverising.

And on this occassion they really are asking for it.