The UK newspaper The Sun reports that six per cent of Brits are convinced the EU is hell-bent on changing the name of Bombay Mix to “Mumbai Mix” and are plotting to change the name of the British sausage to “emulsified high-fat offal tubes”. The name change for the Queen’s favourite snack has never been discussed by the EU, according to Ipsos MORI.
European politics Professor Anand Menon at King’s College London said: “There are obviously still high levels of ignorance about the EU, which is troubling so close to the referendum.
“However, it is not so surprising, given the lack of accurate information provided to the public, as well as the mistruths, exaggerations, and scaremongering that have taken place during this campaign.”
One hotly contested myth is Boris Johnson’s favourite example of bonkers Brussels bureaucrats banning bendy bananas from being imported into the UK.
The EU regulations state bananas must be “free from malformation or abnormal curvature of the fingers”, but is widely understood to prevent importers sending boxes of fruit which are so malformed that they short-change buyers by packing fewer bananas into containers.
Mr Johnson, the figurehead of the Vote Leave campaign, has made various outlandish claims about the EU throughout his career as a politician and journalist, including: a ban on children blowing up balloons, a ban on recycling tea bags and one-size-fits-all coffins.
The survey also found that one of the In campaign’s key messages, that Britons will be worse off post-Brexit, was not persuading everyone. Only a quarter of voters believed their own living standards would be reduced by leaving the bloc.
