I am struggling to grasp how even people as mentally deficient as EU Commissioners could have this one so badly wrong.

I mean, what the fucking fuckity fuck are you guys playing at? Do you want the globe to dive into a depression? Really? Because if you don't may I suggest that you all not just resign but jump off a tall building to make doubly sure you can't be given a role which has anything to do with international trade ever again.

Chinese candle exporters will be hit with extra charges when selling in Europe to punish some producers for selling below cost, the European Union said Saturday.

The EU imposed antidumping charges for six months from Saturday after European candlemakers complained that they were losing business to cheaper Chinese products.

The EU said Chinese candles sell for around 9 percent less and make up about one third of the European market.

Well done everybody! Unemployment is rocketing, economic growth is facing the wrong direction and people are concerned at the run up to Christmas* so the EU decides to slash an area where shops can make a profit and increase prices for consumers. Well fucking done.

Retailers such as Ikea and the British Retail Consortium — which represents supermarket chains Tesco and Marks & Spencer — said the EU was wrong to claim that stores could easily absorb the price hikes. It said retailers would probably have to slice profit from other items to compensate.

The EU claims large chain stores make a profit of up to 70 percent on candles but the BRC said they can make as little as a 6-percent profit.

"This is particularly shocking as this new tax is imposed before Christmas, at a time when consumers have never been so short for disposable incomes," said Alasdair Gray of the BRC.

Well, BRC, you guys all have a vote at the next European Elections so how about you send a strong message.

We have an amateur in charge of the trade policy for 27 diverse countries, a woman who only got her job, as far as I can see, because she's a competent and convincing liar, and if you want to have the directly elected British government making these decisions you have to vote to leave the EU.

Mr Farage queried whether she was equipped to take on what, he said, was the most important trade brief in the world at a time of growing economic instability around the globe.

"Now is not the time for a novice," he said.

"We need a big hitter. Looking at your CV, you have no relevant experience to take on this dossier at a difficult time."

Baroness Ashton, a former economist, said she was qualified to do the job and would argue the cause for free trade against the forces of economic nationalism.

"The question is do I have the ability to go and negotiate on behalf of the European Union, bearing in mind that I want stability and economic growth," she told MEPs.

She didn't take long to answer that one, then.

Letter in the post to MEPs and Mr Farage in particular apologising for this latest cock up? I doubt it. It'll be the usual 'protecting european businesses and jobs' which once again demostrates that David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage is not even close to being understood by our hapless and, frankly, dangerous Euroweenies. Look, sweetie; if China want to sell us nice, cheap products which allows British workers to do something they are more efficient at then that is a good thing for us.

They've proved themselves time and again to be completely in the pocket of the protectionist countries. Next week in Strasbourg the European Parliament is voting for yet more of you tax money to be spent proping up inefficient european businesses who can't compete with globalisation via the Globalisation Adjustment Fund.

whereas Italy has requested assistance in respect of four cases concerning redundancies in the textile sector in Sardinia, Piedmont, Lombardy and Tuscany

It's something you'll just have to get a grip on understanding. Want free trade? Leave the EU.

*although maybe it'll do those chavs who live off social security and yet always seem to get the most at Christmas