EU Myths

Over the years, opponents of UK membership of the EU and right-wing newspapers have come up with a variety of scare stories which were untrue. Here are the true facts.

• A ban on bendy bananas has never existed. [A 1993 EU regulation did categorise excessively bendy bananas as 'sub-standard' but this did not prevent their sale.]
• Britain will still be in the Eurovision Song Contest; it is not dependent on being a member of the EU.
• The EU did not try to make Kent a part of France. [It did once put it into a zone with France when examining environmental changes.]
• You still won't be able to smoke in the pub. [This is a UK law, and nothing to do with the EU; several EU countries do not have smoking bans.]
• Brussels is not banning English from its debates. [EU members Ireland and Malta have English as their official language.]
• The original EU was not solely a free trade zone. [We were already in EFTA, a free trade zone, before joining the EU.]
• The EU did not try to ban barmaids from wearing low-cut tops. [It did pass a rule requiring bosses of employees who work in the sun all day to assess their risk of skin cancer.]
• Bombay Mix has never been under threat. [A 2006 story that the EU wanted to rename the snack to rid it of colonial undertones was a hoax.]
• The EU did not try to rename Waterloo Station or Trafalgar Square. [The suggestion came from a British official at the European Monetary Fund.]
• The EU parliament is not full of people who have not had a 'proper job'. [Of the 13 people who spoke in Brussels on the day Nigel Farage came to gloat, 12 had held jobs outside the EU.]
• Hull will still be 2017 European City of Culture. [We won't have officially left the EU by then.]
• There never was a ban on under-eights blowing up balloons. [This myth stems from the EU insisting that packaging warn that under-eights 'can choke or suffocate on underinflated or broken balloons' - which is actually sensible.]
• Mobile phone roaming charges abroad won't rise again. [These will disappear next June (2017) and it would be commercial suicide for phone companies to bring them back.]
• You won't need new car number plates. [While the EU flag appears on new number plates it is not compulsary and removing it won't be compulsary either.]
• Pounds and ounces won't be coming back. [Britain decided to go metric in 1965, eight years before joining the EEC. Of our major trade partners, only the US still shuns metrication.]
• Health tourism does not bleed us dry. [Treating Brits abroad costs other EU countries five times as much as the cost to the NHS of treating people from the EU.]
• The EU did not call for lifeguards at deep paddling pools. [It does not have the jurisdiction to do so.]
• The Queen's view on Brexit is not known. [The Sun's headline was based on a 2011 story.]
• Educating migrant children does not cost us £3.2 billion a year. [That Daily Express figure refers to schooling 700,000 children with at least one parent who is a European national. Under this definition, Nigel and Kirsten Farage's children Victoria and Isabelle would be 'migrant children'.]
• We won't automatically be outside the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights. [It is not an EU body, but was set up by the Council of Europe, whose members include Russia.]
• You won't need a new driving licence. [While your current one probably has the EU flag on it, the DVLA will just let licences expire rather than issuing a new one.]
• There is no EU Army. [What the Times descibed as an 'army to protect EU borders' was actually about a coastguard for the Schengen area, which the UK is not in.]
• The European flag won't have one less star. [It has 12 stars (not 28) to symbolise the peoples of Europe, not specific countries.]
• You won't need a visa to enter an EU country. 
• There does not have to be an automatic second referendum. [The 'referendum lock' in the European Union Act 2011, was intended to prevent British powers going to Europe without a vote and is unlikely to be upheld to stop the opposite.] 
• Football. We will still play in the Euro competitions, if we qualify. Our clubs will still be in the Champions League.
• Golf. Our golfers will still play in the Ryder Cup. [The criteria for being European is geographical, not political or economic.]
• The Eu did not subsidise bull-fighting. [It did subsidise Spanish farmers - some of whom may have bred fighting bulls.]
• Duty-free won't make drink and cigarettes much cheaper. We will probably regain the allowance of 200 cigarettes, 16 litres of beer and 4 litres of wine, but lose the right to go booze cruising to France (800 cigarettes, 110 litres of beer and 90 litres of wine.
• The EU did not make tightrope walkers wear hard hats. [It has laws to protect people working a heights, but there is no mention of circuses or helmets.]
• The EU has never asked for 'High Up' signs on mountain tops. [This was a deliberate mis-reading of laws to protect people working at heights.]
• The EU did not force farmers to buy toys for their pigs. [It did stipulate that they should have straw, hay and compost.]
• The EU's accounts have been signed off. For eight years in a row.
• The EU did not try to ban brandy butter or call it brandy spreadable fat. [It was specifically excluded from restrictions on things that were not butter calling themselves butter.]
• You won't have to get a new passport. Look carefully at yours - it is a British document. [There is no such thing as an EU passport.]
• Brexit will not expire if it is not agreed within 2 years of Article 20 being invoked. That is just a deadline which can be extended.
• The EU did not impose smaller condom sizes on British men. [The independent European Standardisation Committee (not the EU) made that rule.]
• The Eurostar will keep running. [The Channel tunnel and its trains have nothing to do with the EU.]
• The EU never wanted to stop light ale being called 'light'. [It was keen to stop unhealthy food and drink being branded 'light' or 'lite' but light ale was not one of them.]
• Yoghurt was never going to be rebranded as 'fermented milk pudding'. [This myth stemmed from a 2003 technical description of yoghurt by the EU.]
• Snickers won't be called Marathon again. [The name change had nothing to do with EU conformity.]

Source: The New European (a pop-up publication by Archant Community Media). Issue July 15-21, 2016