How Sausage Laws Get Made (Very Fugly Edition)

Over at the invaluable To the People blog, Baylen Linnekin--not a nom de plume--fisks a recent call for protectionist laws by "traditional Cumberland sausage" makers in ye olde Englande. If you think regular governance is like watching sausage getting made, just wait til you read how unseemly the making of laws about making sausage get made (suddenly I'm both nauseous and hungry; is it lunchtime yet?).

A snippet:

Hot on the heels of British Sausage Week, bangermakers in Cumberland, England have formed an association in an attempt to use EU food-name protections to block out competitors who traffic in "lesser quality imitations" of their beloved "Traditional Cumberland Sausage".

The new association's chairman, quoted in a piece titled "Help Us Protect Our Traditional Cumberland Sausage," has "a simple message for all those [straw men] who, over the years, have demeaned, degraded and devalued the wonderful regional food speciality that is our Cumberland sausage: we're taking it back!"

Yeah! There's just one problem with the notion of "taking back" the Cumberland Sausage, though. Clamping down on competition and free trade entrails (erm, entails) having a pretty specific definition of a product and its history. But it seems Cumberland's sausagemakers haven't exactly an ironclad definition of what it means to be a Cumberland Sausage.

Read why here.

Comments

[R C Dean]

I'm sorry, but a movement to protect traditional sausage is just comedy gold waiting to be mined, people.

Eager awaiting Mr. Darkly's contribution.

[smacky]

Why do I get the feeling a sausage party is about to congregate?

[Dave W.]

"I will keep shooting fisk . . ." Comment by: Ronald Bailey at November 1, 2005 01:05 PM

So don't be surprised if the very fisking of the recent call ends up mysteriously shot.

[cdunlea]

I may not be able to define what a Cumberland sausage is, but I know it when I see it.

[joe]

bangermakers.

bangermakers bangermakers bangermakers.

Bangermakers.

[mk]

RC Dean,

It's already been done. If you haven't already, get the dvd of Yes, Prime Minister. It's was one of the best shows ever and yes, it does include a politician finding his way to office by making the stand that the British sausage must be saved from continental harassment.

[David]

Why do I get the feeling a sausage party is about to congregate?

Every thread around here is a sausage party. Except if you, linguist, Jennifer, et al had the bulk of posts.

[Bramblyspam]

Dang, mk beat me to it.

Let me second the recommendation on "Yes, Minister" and its sequel, "Yes, prime minister". Anyone inclined to read this blog will LOVE both.

The episode with the "British sausage" is the christmas special, in which Jim Hacker becomes prime minister.

[smacky]

Every thread around here is a sausage party. Except if you, linguist, Jennifer, et al had the bulk of posts.

David,

I have few joys in the world as it is. Please let me savor my bad puns (and my delicious Cumberland Sausage!). Some days, they're all I have.

[David]

Smacky,

Watch out when posting about savoring sausage, you're liable to kill Stevo.

[Stevo Darkly]

I was going to tell a story about they casings they use to stuff German sausage into, but why focus on the wurst case scenario?

[Stevo Darkly]

smacky -- What's a cummerbund sausage?

(And are we having server problems again?)

[smacky]

smacky -- What's a cummerbund sausage?

Stevo,

I'll tell you when you're older.

[joe]

Wurst Case would be a good name for a band.

It even suggests album covery imagery.

[Dave W.]

I rememeber I wanted to call my dorky metal band Sausage Party. Then the gutarist said we couldn't because Les Claypool was naming a band Sausage or something like that. So we named it Carnage Asada. Then, and this is the weird part, another band called Carnage Asada came into existence. I tried to contact them to tell them that we weren't using the name any more, but all contact attempts failed. Les Claypool got wealthy from TV theme work. THE END.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Not that this has anything to do with anything, but there's a little German sausage making company down the street from me that has a kitchen they keep as clean as an operating room. I haven't been down to the State Capitol building to see how clean that place is, though.

[Eryk Boston]

Does anyone else find the idea of taking credit for English cooking, let alone trying to protect the name, a bit dumb?