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		Straight Bananas Thursday, 13th November 2008 Finally the EU has come clean and admitted that it really did have rules on straight bananas. For years, supporters of the EU have talked about straight bananas as a "euro-myth", a story so ridiculous that only bad people seeking to debunk the EU could have told such dreadful lies. Odd, then, that the EU Commission has just announced that it is to ditch a whole raft of rules on straight bananas, curved cucumbers and wonky vegetables. Of course euro-realists have been pointing out for years that the European Union really does have regulations on straight bananas (Directive No 2257/94 of 16 September 1994). But somehow the euro-myth story stuck, and the left-wing press never grasped the truth. This really matters, especially in times of economic hardship. Perfectly good fruit -- apples that were too small, pears with minor surface blemishes -- were thrown away, or became cattle feed, because of European rules. Meantime hard-pressed housewives counting the pennies would have been happy to buy small apples for small children, or for apple pies. Commenting on the EU decision, East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer said "At last they've done the sensible thing -- that they should have done years ago. Indeed these daft and damaging regulations should never have reached the statute book. But the lesson has not been learned. We may have cancelled a few silly rules, but we create far more new ones every month. EU regulation is costing every family in Britain hundreds of pounds a year, and making us all poorer".