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Apple apples are not from Apple

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THE X-RATED GRANDMA's New DORITOS Commercial

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Cat Born With 4 Ears

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Girls In Afghan Acid Attack (Graphic)

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Russian church presumed stolen

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Cannibal Cuisine

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Korean Man Fish

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Chimp 'Adopts' Tiger Cubs

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The EU is to relax its rules on misshapen vegetables |

The US may have Barack Obama but the EU has Mariann Fischer Boel.
"This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the knobbly carrot," said the European agriculture commissioner today, referring to the imminent decision to scrap EU laws banning imperfect-looking fruit and vegetables.

Marketing standards for 26 fruit and vegetables, which led to a lot of less-than-perfect items being thrown away, are to be repealed.

One man likely to be happy is Jamie Oliver. He recently said he had "nothing nice to say about the EU at all".

"You remember when the cucumber came in? If it's over that much of a bend, then we can't sell it. How dare they? How dare they?"

However, the change in thinking in Europe was prompted not by an acknowledgment that the rules should never have been introduced but by a belated decision that they were inappropriate during a food crisis. Those who point the finger at alleged EU bureaucracy note that the ban will remain in place until July next year.

Harry Haddock, on the Nation of Shopkeepers blog, writes:

In the meantime, to protect you from the horror of anarchist carrots refusing to grow down the straight and narrow EU path, we will continue to sacrifice 20% of all that is grown, and continue to pay a 40% premium for the privilege. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the fact of the matter. The EU is an undemocratic, corrupt, bureaucratic organisation that makes life worse for everyone in the UK.

The rules have, of course, supplied Eurosceptics with valuable ammunition in their campaign to highlight the perceived excessive interference of the EU. Regulations that say cucumbers "must be reasonably well shaped and practically straight (maximum height of the arc: 10mm per 10cm of the length of cucumber)" do not exactly tally with most people's everyday concerns.

And stories such as Sainsbury's decision last month to drop plans for a healthy-eating Halloween campaign featuring "zombie brain" cauliflowers, "witch's fingers" carrots and "ogre's toenail" cucumbers, for fear staff might be prosecuted, did not exactly help.

It is rare that the UK Independence party is right about something, but in this case, the comments of its leader, MEP Nigel Farage, are difficult to argue with: "This is a rare moment of sense in an otherwise mad world."The US may have Barack Obama but the EU has Mariann Fischer Boel. "This marks a new dawn for the curvy cucumber and the... more