In some parts of the world, infamously in Mexico for example, water is not safe to drink. But that is not the issue here.

In a scarcely believable ­ruling, a panel of experts threw out a claim that regular water consumption is the best way to rehydrate the body.

Granted, as you can see, even the European mainstream press is looking at this one a little cockeyed, but when government scientists, those oh-so-terribly-smart people who by rights ought to be in charge of everything, can spend three years coming to such a ridiculous conclusion, suddenly the generally sorry state of the European Union starts making a lot more sense in terms of how it came about.

And needless to say, this is the same breed of super-smart scientist who goes along happily with the so-called consensus on man-made global warming and the trillions of dollars of economic impact all that has.

But in all likelihood, this too will pass as just one of those bureaucratic foul-ups that we laugh at and quietly “fix” without much consideration being given to the larger implications about the reliability of the educated elite who wield such massive amounts of authority in our lives.

Just another one of those things so stupid it takes a genius to even think of it.