Even the BBC!

What on earth is the world coming to? The BBC has acknowledged that there is a certain amount of EU involvement in the regulatory structure. This is about Vince Cable's latest great idea: the one in - one out regulation.

From September, ministers will have to identify an existing piece of regulation to be removed for every new rule proposed.

In addition, a panel of business experts will scrutinise all new legislation before it is introduced.

Oh goody. Unfortunately, there is this problem of the King over the Water (well, government over the water).

The new measures will apply initially to UK legislation only.

However, it is estimated that last year a third of the additional regulatory burden came from European Union directives.

The Department for Business said it would take a more "rigorous approach" to EU regulations, including engaging earlier in the Brussels policymaking process.

What that will achieve is anybody's guess, there being 27 members and a certain amount of doubt around British negotiators being particularly interested in British business. One can only hope that those negotiators will have a clearer idea of EU legislation than the BBC does. It is not just EU Directives that produce regulations but EU Regulations that are directly applicable. It is, in fact, extremely difficult to calculate exactly what proportion of regulations is EU-inspired even when they appear to be British. I am looking forward to the knots all these people are going to tie themselves into.