There is trouble brewing at a host of inventors premises throughout the UK and the rest of Europe following a directive by the expense claimers, er, Eurocrats of Brussels, The Hague, Luxembourg and parts of Cleethorpes (closed Wednesdays).
Professor Ivan Newun, of Congleton, was sitting in his laboratory, already cunningly disguised as a garden shed, (the laboratory and not the Professor was cunningly disguised as a shed) when he suddenly invented something.
He shouted "Eureka", as inventors usually do, but when the lightbulb went on over his head in his thought bubble, he was immediately accosted by a Euro MP with a clipboard and told he must replace the lightbulb with a flourescent, low-energy bulb, with immediate effect. This was in order that he could comply with EEC ruling on the banning of traditional tungsten bulbs and if he was expecting to have any more bright ideas in the future.
Professor Newun was said to be quite flabbagasted. And he was also dressed in a shirt, tie and trousers with colours that didn't match.
The Euro MP, Ima Burke, who wished to remain nameless on the grounds of claiming a day's expenses at the EEC when she wasn't actually there, was said to be pleased with the result. She went on to say that 'rules are rules' and that she would have to charge for any further words over the three she had just uttered.
