Wrong medicine

There are many reasons for being sceptical of the campaign led by Paul McCartney, Elton John and Zoe Ball to defend herbal remedies from Brussels regulations. It seems drearily anti-European, and in defence of treatments that are often based on no more than superstition and the placebo effect.

Yet we are with the singer-songwriters and the disc jockey against the meddlesome MEPs. Is there any evidence that people are being harmed by the growing popularity of alternative therapies? Not really.

Provided basic safety standards are set, and children are protected, the only protections that adults require are information, information and more information. The EU should legislate along these lines, but only if it can show that existing law in its member states is inadequate – and that is as unproven as the beneficial properties of Rhodiola rosa.