A PROTEST outside last week’s States meeting led by a woman dressed as a jar of Marmite was a vivid illustration of the lunacy many islanders fear will follow from the island signing up to EU legislation on food safety standards.

The Danes may have taken things a step further by banning the world’s favourite – or most loathed, depending on your preference – yeast extract spread but it is merely seen as a sign of things to come.

Those who are opposed to the Assembly voting to embrace the EU regulations worry that supplements and additives they have taken for years will become outlawed.

Their hope is that they will be able to have the law thrown out when it returns to the House in draft form.

Sadly, they should not bank on that.

Anyone reading the Billet d’Etat report underpinning last week’s initial decision will be struck with the force of the argument behind it.

The island’s reputation is at risk if the new code isn’t adopted. Most locally-based businesses involved in supplying the huge demand for these products want to be judged on a level playing field of legislation.

And the issue of Guernsey’s non-compliance has been raised by the Ministry of Justice, in Parliament and by the minister with responsibility for the Channel Islands.

In other words, according to the information presented to deputies, failure to comply was not an option. Nor was trying to amend the proposals to effect a ‘Guernsey solution’ to the problem.

For many – quite possibly most – islanders this is deeply frustrating. In effect, the non-elected bureaucrats of Europe are telling this community how it should be run. Even if a majority of States members wanted to take a contrary view, they were told they could not.

What this illustrates, of course, is the parlous position of the Bailiwick if it wants to engage with the outside world.

The food supplements row was visible because it is easy to understand.

The real danger is the largely invisible pressure on Guernsey’s financial services sector, which large sectors of Europe dislike as much as Danish regulators hate Marmite.