Tim here, this is the shorter World Service version of more or less, first broadcast on the 1st of April 2016.

This program is about European cabbage regulation, a great topic, but if you've heard the longer version of our show, you will also have heard most of this item.

Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

We're the program that looks for the truth behind the numbers in the B.C World Service. We're the program that looks for the truth behind the numbers in the news, in life, and in politics. And I'm Tim Harford. This week, one of the very earliest zombie statistics. Some of you may have seen some version of it doing the

rounds on the internet.

Lord's Prayer 66 words. The Ten Commandments, 179 words. Gettysburg address 286 words. EU regulations on the sale of a

cabbage 26,911 words. Now that is a lot11 words.

Now that is a lot of words devoted to cabbage.

The UK is facing a referendum to decide whether to stay in the European Union or leave.

And so this cabbage statistic is proving very popular.

Aeman Butler, director of the free market think tank, the Adam Smith Institute,

tweeted the cabbage meme and writing in the British paper the daily mail last month

the journalist Rachel Johnson complained as soon as I declared myself an inner last week I

started veering like a wonky shopping trolley towards the Brexit and began to find the

outer's argument strangely compelling. Take this example, the Lord's prayer is 66 words long,

the 10 Commandments 79 words, the Gettysburg address

272 words. EU regulations on the sale of cabbage? 26,911 words.

If you were paying attention you will have noticed that while these various sources disagree

over the length of the Gettysburg address and the number of words in the

Ten Commandments, they are in absolute agreement over the length of the EU cabbage sale regulations.

26,911 words.

That number isn't new.

...