Reply #5: That could be a reference to this - it was blamed on the continent [View All]

[muriel_volestrangler]

What's that smell? A whiff of Europe

· Aroma that hit the south blamed on weather
· Met Office warns odour may linger for days

* The Guardian,
* Saturday April 19 2008

The Met Office described it as an "atmospheric aroma". But those who caught a whiff of the foul smell hanging around southern England yesterday used rather less dainty language.

Within hours of the smell first hitting Britain's nostrils, people in London, Kent, Hertfordshire, Berkshire, East Anglia and Devon were grumbling about the stink, and the big pong had become a national talking point, with websites espousing increasingly anti-European theories.

Conservative communities complained about a political stench emanating from the European commission; the Daily Mail complained of "Le Stink" (which later became Der Stink, when blame was shifted from France to Germany); and others named "garlic-eating surrender monkeys". But the Met Office stepped in to rule that it was basic pollution - the "odour of ordinary everyday life in northern Europe". Belgian chocolate factories, Dutch pig farms, German diesel engines and 1,000 other smells had become trapped under a motionless cloud hanging over continental farms and factories for several days.

"On Thursday night the wind picked up and it blew over to us. It's hard to say exactly what it is because we don't know. The air hadn't moved much so it's picked up all kinds of things. All we can do is wait for it to blow away. The intensity is likely to decrease but we don't expect a change in the air flow for a couple of days," said a Met Office spokeswoman.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/19/weather