Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Back off, Brussels

A British shopkeeper in Spain has been fined for selling a jar of pickled onions with an English label - even though her customers are all Brits.

Food inspectors spotted the £1.20 jar among hundreds of correctly labelled items in Helen Rush's store, reports The Sun. A local law says ingredients must be translated into Spanish - but Helen branded her treatment unfair.

She said: "I spend hours translating the labels but when I make one small mistake I get hammered for it. It's irrelevant to them that 99.9% of my clients are Brits and a Spaniard wouldn't eat a pickled onion at gunpoint."

It's good to know that the expats who have set up such magnificently rigid Little Britains in the Spanish sun - where Only Fools and Horses and Premiership football are always on the telly, and full English breakfasts, Marmite soldiers and pints of John Smiths are always at hand - have not forgotten to take with them our beloved tales of EU bureaucracy GONE MAD.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of moving to another country?

Brit said...

You'd think so. But think again. The Med is spotted with these little enclaves of expats who live even more Britishly than the British in Britain.

The only thing they want from Johnny Foreigner is his sunshine.

Big Chip Dale said...

Why is it that only the dumbest amongst us have the money to live abroad and experience (or, more accurately, ignore) a different and probably superior culture?

And say what you like about the Spanish committing all kinds of terrible act against helpless donkeys, but they have never yet pickled an onion.

Brit said...

Superior culture?

THEY DON'T PLAY CRICKET.

(The siestas are a fine tradition, however.)

Erin O'Brien said...

Hey baby, say "telly" again. Yeah, like that. Keep saying "telly."

You got anything stiff over here other than upper lips?

Brit said...

Do try to control yourself, madam. This isn't one of your infamous Spring Break high school prom rodeos.

Erin O'Brien said...

That's right, baby, this ain't no Spring Break high school prom rodeo.

Now pass me the bangers and a jar of that warm beer.

Susan's Husband said...

And don't forget, nothing makes a girl more sexy than slurping down a jar of pickled onions.