Anyone who has followed my recent investigation into that Jean Monnet quote might be interested to read Jan Marinus Wiersma's blog on cabbages, which turns out to be another example of how the internet has helped propagate and amplify myths.

Cabbages have always been held responsible for creating some unpleasant hot air and as Jan Marinus reveals it is no different on this occasion.

His blog looks into the alleged 26,000-odd words the EU uses in its legislation on cabbages and how this compares to the number of words in, for instance, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer or Pythagoras’s Theorem. With a little research he discovers it is in fact an old yarn, originally cooked up in the United States in 1943, about a trade agreement the country originally had with the Netherlands, but with the help of the internet it has sprang back to life as a fanciful story about European regulation.

Lies about cabbages are certainly not as damaging as the Jean Monnet quote but they, along with the plethora of other white lies about Europe, contribute to the atmosphere of ridicule the right-leaning press is so accomplished at foistering.