LONDON — Like so many others in this fiercely independent island nation, Steve Baker, a dashing English engineer, is fed up with the long hand of the European Union in British life.
The E.U., he said, has meddled for years in Britain’s legal affairs and labor laws. But this time the 27-nation body had gone too far by interfering with his pride and joy: the retrofitted KTM 950 motorcycle he rides on the country lanes of Buckinghamshire. Proposed pan-European rules would forbid motorcycle owners from doctoring bikes themselves, outraging tens of thousands of British bikers and becoming the latest symbol here of continental authority run amok.
Baker is also the wrong biker to mess with. An elected member of Parliament, he is part of a growing rank of furious politicians ratcheting up the pressure on British Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a national referendum on a once-unthinkable notion here: leaving the E.U.
“We’re dealing with the tyranny of the nursery, a pathetic nanny state of Europe that now wants to even tell us how we can and cannot modify our motorcycles,” said Baker, one of 100 Conservative lawmakers demanding a referendum — a proposal that is gaining a measure of support even within the opposition Labor Party. “Britain has reached the point where almost no one wants to continue with the way things are, less consider deeper integration with Europe.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/britains-continental-drift-away-from-the-european-union/2012/07/15/gJQARaQslW_story.html?hpid=z3
The E.U., he said, has meddled for years in Britain’s legal affairs and labor laws. But this time the 27-nation body had gone too far by interfering with his pride and joy: the retrofitted KTM 950 motorcycle he rides on the country lanes of Buckinghamshire. Proposed pan-European rules would forbid motorcycle owners from doctoring bikes themselves, outraging tens of thousands of British bikers and becoming the latest symbol here of continental authority run amok.
Baker is also the wrong biker to mess with. An elected member of Parliament, he is part of a growing rank of furious politicians ratcheting up the pressure on British Prime Minister David Cameron to hold a national referendum on a once-unthinkable notion here: leaving the E.U.
“We’re dealing with the tyranny of the nursery, a pathetic nanny state of Europe that now wants to even tell us how we can and cannot modify our motorcycles,” said Baker, one of 100 Conservative lawmakers demanding a referendum — a proposal that is gaining a measure of support even within the opposition Labor Party. “Britain has reached the point where almost no one wants to continue with the way things are, less consider deeper integration with Europe.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
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