Britiain should have voted against 'crazy' EU rule on serving olive oil, say MPs Our officials can only deal with so much and this clearly got past them. It is no business of the EU how restaurants serve olive oil. All to often we have to go along with these things solely because officials are swamped on so many fronts. Another Tory MP, Douglas Carswell, said there was a problem with officials making policy for elected ministers. "Unless we free ourselves from this hideous system it will not just be oil that is taken off out tables," he said. The whole country is run by the technocrats. Sir Humphrey is in charge. We are no longer a democracy, we are a technocracy. Even Eurosceptic ministers are waking to the fact that they are powerless. The new regulations were backed by officials from most southern European EU states including Italy, which has already introducing a similar law of its own, but were opposed by others, mostly from the north. Sources close to Mr Paterson said the British government had opposed the new rules and fought vigorously against them behind the scenes. However, the UK abstained in the vote within the European Commission committee since it agreed with tighter labelling regulations that were included in the same measure. Mr Hunt cited the debacle as an example of why other parts of the world think the European economy was "frankly a joke" and full of excessive red tape. However, Mr Alexander, one of his Liberal Democrat colleagues, said the "pretty silly" ban should not be taken as a good reason to leave the EU. He told the BBC's Sunday Politics show that "silly rules are not the sole preserve of the European Union," as local councils and Whitehall bring in unnecessary red tape too. "I really believe that Britain cannot afford to be isolated from our members of the European Union; it's massively in our interest," he said. Ukip, the Eurosceptic party surging in opinion polls, has seized on the decision as an example of Brussels interfering in everyday life. One Ukip branch in the Mid Derbyshire constituency is offering all new joiners a free bottle of olive oil in protest. Nigel Farage, the party's leader, said Conservative Party must stand up to Brussels. "Senior Tories last week branded their Eurosceptic members as 'loonies,"" he said. If Owen Paterson [the Environment Secretary], a renowned Tory Eurosceptic, failed to oppose this ridiculous EU decision in Brussels there is no hope of the Tory government opposing anything of importance at the European Council. A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said Britain supported improved labelling but believed the new rules would "lead to unnecessary waste and place added burdens on businesses." However, the spokesman added: "We will continue to work with the catering industry to help them adapt to these changes."