Monday, April 09, 2012

The Sun has noticed



Sun rules.jpg

We only wrote about this in 2004, so The Sun can be forgiven for taking little bit of time to catch up with is. But within the paper's article, there is a long complaint about the "barmy law" requiring traders to fill in a complex form detailing every item they sell in mind-numbing detail. 

Each product, we are told, has its own code and staff must spend hours thumbing through a 912-page, 2in-thick manual to find the right one. And then we learn that this "hefty book", is called the Intrastat Classification Nomenclature, which categorises everything from livestock, chemicals and cosmetics to umbrellas, swords and wigs. 

This "hefty book" though goes back to 1992, which is when we were writing on it. It goes so far back as to be pre-internet days. To remind myself of what Booker and I were writing at the time, I had to go back to The Castle of Lies, which you can now buy for a penny, plus p&p. 

And there is pages 115-117 – all there, published in 1996 – the story of Intrastats. So, what Booker and I write sixteen years ago, The Sun finds news for today. If we wait another sixteen years, I suppose it might just catch up with what we are currently writing.