In a week when the chairman of the EU’s ‘convention’ has produced a first draft of a laughably grandiose ‘constitution’, Brussels has shown that its overreach is not confined to the big picture. The latest step in the Commission’s bid to build a united Europe is a requirement that farmers must stamp every egg they sell with their home address, the details of the hen which laid the egg, the method of production, the code for the producer-packer, and a sell-by date.

The Daily Telegraph is not impressed.