David's Digest

Unlike some of my farming friends I have always believed the EU does us more good than harm and have never joined the ranks of those who advocate leaving the club. I have even considered joining the Euro as a possibility in the past, although the current crisis of currency's makes it a non starter at the moment.

But why does the EU make such a fool of itself over matters that should not concern it? I have been reading about moves in the European Parliament to ban the terms Miss, Mrs, Madame, Mademoiselle, etc, and equivalents in all the various EU languages. In the same so-called "gender-neutral" initiative sportsmen will be required to be called athletes, statesmen will be known as political leaders, and artificial will replace man-made.

Is there a department in Brussels devoted to ruining the EU's credibility with such nonsense? Have officials not got enough to do running Europe? Is the Berlaymont Building and those that surround it populated entirely by bra burning feminists?

Don't get me wrong. I have no problem with women achieving high authority and I am happy to concede that many of them are better than men. Goodness knows I work with enough of them - including those who supervise my scribbles for Farmers Weekly - who are supreme examples of what I am talking about. But I cannot believe they are sensitive to longstanding interpretations of words or need the protection of the EU PC squad to consolidate their positions.

In my view this is reminiscent of previous rulings that insisted on straight banana's and sausages that were just as nonsensical. For goodness sake you lot in Brussels, spend your time and energy on important matters, like solving the worlds financial problems and stop wasting your time and our money.