Archives for the 'regulation' tag
Brit Gov’t Drinks Measures Cause Brew-Ha-Ha
It’s alright to stop off at your local for a pint, but not for a half-litre, even though they’re pretty much the same thing. That according to English law. And that regulatory idiocy might cost restaurant owner Nic Davison a fine of £2,000.
Mr Davison, an accountant, and his partner Dr Krystyna Ciuraj, a GP, opened their Polish restaurant in Doncaster in May.
Kuchnia Polska instantly became a hit with locals as well as the Polish community.
But last week trading standards officers from Doncaster council served an infringement notice on the business – because it was serving drinks in the wrong size of glass.
This was because the Polish brewer providing Zywiec beer also supplied the glasses, which come in ’small’ and ‘large’ – 0.3 and 0.5 litre sizes.
But under 1988 Weights and Measures legislation, draught beer and cider may only be sold in pints. Serving them in litres, or fractions of litres, is illegal – even through half a litre is almost the same as one pint.
Officers told the couple they had 28 days to change all of their glassware, or face prosecution. The notice came despite there being no complaints from customers.
Mr Davison said: ‘This is nonsensical.
[...]
‘Local people love Polish beer – it’s very good.
‘It just shows the law is stupid.
‘I love Poland and I speak Polish, but the European Community is corrupt as hell and a waste of time.’
Last year Brussels said it would give up its fight to make Britain drop imperial measurements, meaning the Government did not have to bring in laws making it illegal for traders to use pounds and ounces.
But the law on pints remains.
Mr Davison enlisted the help of the Metric Martyrs, which was set up to support Sunderland market trader Steve Thoburn who was convicted in 2001 for selling bananas by the pound.
Spokesman Neil Herron said he was backing the bid to save the litre in this case because it shows that the law is ridiculous.
‘Yet again we have officials who have failed to exercise any common sense,’ he said.
Restaurant website here. More on the Polish beer controversy from the Daily Mail. Learn about the whole English measurement brew-ha-ha from the Metric Martyrs’ Movement. Crispy on EU regulatory food nightmares here.
Crispy Podcast Episode 1
In the inaugural episode of our weekly podcast, we discuss Paul Prudhome dodging bullets, the Amy Winehouse saga, the merits of lettuce and mayonaise on pizzza, the Nats going BYOF, food safety regs, and the week in bacon. We also recommend Ciao Bella gelato, which is insanely great.
Please take a listen and post a comment letting us know what you think. We apologize in advance for the audio quality, which is a little chintzy, but hey, it’s our first time and it will get better. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to the show for free. You can grab the RSS feed or click here to subscribe in iTunes. That way you’ll get it every week.
Regulations Don’t Beget Safer Foods
On Friday, NPR-voiced podcaster Caleb Brown of the Cato Institute interviewed Peter Van Doren of Cato’s Regulation** magazine about the myth of food safety. As Van Doren puts it:
The problem is that government overpromises… The left points out [USDA & FDA are] underfunded and don’t have enough inspectors to actually do a good job. And the left is correct. It’s true.
But that’s a chronic problem. Instead of the answer to that being, “Oh, we could add more money to the budget and somehow solve the problem,” if you do the math, you’d find out you can’t have enough inspectors to actually adequately provide assurances of the sort many voters want.
More here. Cato podcast index here.
The Federal Times on food safety issues here. The U.S. government’s own food safety website — which, as the image above shows, proves the feds aren’t wasting a blessed penny of their food-safety inspection budget on web design — here.
**I’m guessing that Regulation is the only magazine published by a think tank that boasts a former Dancing with the Stars contestant as a columnist.
