Why can't they just admit it?

Weirder and weirder. The six-day flight ban had the fingerprints of the EU all over it, but nobody in this country wants to admit it, the Transport Minister, the Civil Aviation Authority, Nats, the airlines, the Met Office and all quangos east are playing pass-the-parcel in the blame game, as summarised in today's Evening Standard.

It's only right at the end that the article mentions, almost in passing:

The decision to lift the ban came when the European aviation body Eurocontrol switched to a map based on satellite observations rather than the much-criticised Nats model based on computer forecasting. The new agreed standard lifts the permissible amount of ash entering aero engines from zero to one two hundredth of a gram per square metre of air entering the engine per hour.

A spokesman for the CAA said it had “led the way” in opening the skies over Britain and Europe, adding: “When you are dealing with people's lives it is not enough to just make up a less restrictive standard, you have to agree one based on robust scientific evidence and data. The UK's work to prove this has now been adopted across Europe.

I mean, the ban may or may not have been the right thing to do; and we all use similar aeroplanes, so what's dangerous (or safe) in one country's airspace must be equally dangerous (or safe) in another country's, so why can't they admit that the flight ban was down to Eurocontrol; and that it was only lifted once Eurocontrol had been persuaded to change the rules?

And yes, I know that Eurocontrol is not strictly speaking an institution of the European Union, but it is certainly in close cahoots.