Get your hands off my light bulbs, Big Brother

Mike

Just brilliant!

Fiat Lux

There are lots of websites where you can buy them - 30 seconds on Google will find them. Stock up now. As for all the other silly rules, we'll just have to learn to be more like the Italians i.e. find a way round them or ignore them.

Dwight Vandryver

It needed saying - well done. In his conclusion, Mr. Forbes did not go far enough. The symptoms described are part of a recently discovered political tool used to mask the indecisiveness, inaction and incompetence of government. By convincing the individual that he or she is partly to blame for everything wrong in the world, thereby engendering a sense of personal guilt, the spotlight is turned away from those elected to manage national matters for us. For instance, they tell us that global warming is a direct consequence of our individual behaviour, but where are the new roads, where are the affordable city perimeter carparks with fast links to the centre, and where are the local railways? Instead, there are congestion charges, toll roads and a 67% fuel tax. We are not told that if the UK were to somehow be erased from the world atlas, the CO2 emissions would drop by less than 2.5% (one fortieth).

Philip Ogilvie

An excellent article. It makes me think that Sibley's Law on giving capital to banks (Christopher Fildes, passim) applies even more so to paying taxes to the Government, especially, capital taxes.

mark

Where are we going? Why are we in this handbasket?

Brutum Fulmen

If your government thinks that the compact fluorescent bulb is the final solution, it is indeed certifiable. However, technology will come to its rescue before 2011 (or whenever the deadline is), so that it will never actually have to be confined to an institution. The future lies in light-emitting diodes, which are quite bright enough to read by, and which contain no toxic mercury. At the moment they are far too expensive to be widely adopted, but the price should come down as demand increases and manufacturers start to enjoy large economies of scale. I suspect that your government knows all this perfectly well, and is chancing its arm about the timescale over which the projected price decreases will occur. That is, those responsible for the decisions are gamblers rather than fools. It would be most uncharitable to think otherwise.

Lizzie

How right you are, and it is only the tip of the nightmare iceberg we are hurtling towards! Why are we so poweless?

Roger Inkpen

Why oh why is this man not writing for the Daily Mail? I expect intelligent comment in the Speccie, not this this moronic ranting. If you want to blame somebody for the mess the world is in, blame yourself and your generation Mr Forbes. You've elected govts which have created this level of deceit and obfuscation over its citizens.

Darron Barnes

I could not agree more with Roger Inkpen comments above.

Mike Wade

A bit of a rant by Bryan Forbes, but fundamentally spot on. We need more such common sense, and less oppression by politically correct nonsense and ineffective "knee-jerk" initiatives. Mandating CFLs is probably even less sensible than building wind farms which only enable capital-intensive conventional power stations to run idle when the wind happens to blow. Consider the logic: Q: How are CFLs and incandescent bulbs different? A: CFLs produce far less heat for the same amount of light. Q: Where are most incandescent bulbs used? A: Inside our homes. Q: When are these lights mostly switched on? A: In the winter. Q: What else happens in the winter? A: We burn oil or gas to heat our homes. Conclusion: Fit CFLs and the main effect will be increased consumption of oil or gas to replace the heat previously provided by incandescent lights! Add to this the fact that CFLs are totally unsuitable for most chandeliers and other decorative light fittings (and in many cases do not physically fit), and the argument for stockpiling incandescent bulbs is irresistable ! Our politicians should focus on the radical and fundamental changes required to avert environmental disaster, rather than causing annoyance with largely ineffective short-term measures.

Sean

Classic. Best piece I've read in some time.

Tim Hemry

Don't worry about the older folks who can't afford the new, more expensive bulbs. Your governemtn will tax you ever more to subsidize them.

Christopher Mercier

Oh, yes. About that dust that they mention? Fluorescent bulbs eventually become covered in a white film of dust after sitting idle...or sitting in sockets. It becomes tainted with ultraviolet ray tinged mercury. I worked in stores that used fluorescent bulbs. when changing the bulbs you must wear gloves and wash hands immediately. The bulbs also have to be set aside from other waste/trash so they do not break. The reason for that is when they do break, what is essentially irradiated mercury vapor/dust gets in the air. Sounds like a fun time, no? Efficient? Terribly.

Dan Guenzel

I've long admired Bryan Forbes, enjoying for an example his ingratiating performance in that beautifully-photographed swashbuckler of old, SEA DEVILS, to that wonderful and intelligent film he made later on, SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON. How nice, then, to see him in print commenting on the lunacy of the lightbulbs. Mr Forbes has done a great service to us by writing this brilliant piece. I believe he should seriously consider making a film on the subject he has written about. He would do it very well, of that I am certain.

John Trainor

This article really struck a nerve. I hate the florescent bulbs. In trying to buy the incandescent, I notice they are already less plentiful, already being phased out. President Bush has made some decisions that show such a lack of common sense and such betrayal of our individual freedoms. I can not wait for his last day in office. The continued deterioration of my nation's finances under this so-called fiscal conservative boggles the mind, but that's another subject.

l

In Massachusetts, USA, the deadline coincides with the time a local incandescant bulb manufacturer chose to stop making them.

kEND

An awakening is occurring. Thanks for the fuel.

Mike

I'm a Yank, and saw a new report on the net a while back about the Australian government mandating this silly new bulbs.It took only milliseconds for my brain to realize that this idea was so appalling stupid and counter-productive as to be irresistable to my own government, an sure enough, here we are. Will a counter trend eventually develop, with people pointing out that the new bulbs do not in fact last forever, don't net out to save as much electricity as thought, give out funny radio frequency interference, and have bad effects on the human eye? To ask the question is to answer it. So the Aussies think they've topped us and can past stupider legislation than we can? Nonsense. Our record holds. Just look at our foreign policy and stand in awe. We'll never allow a stupidity gap to develop vis-a-vis the rest of the Anglosphere, so you Brits and ANZACs should give up trying

Max

It's all right, you won't feel a thing, incremental attacks on your freedom will make it easy.

Allan

Candles. We must go back to candles.

susan Latham-Richmond

you should have written a science fiction whereby on the lines of a rural community with a seperate community of experts filtering down technology so that it was entirely eco and safe while managing their numbers like gods... at the moment you have a swing between bureaucracy and laissez faire...i am another person who has been told not to earn a living or i will have income taken away that i am entirely dependent on..i suggest you take on s.a.d ethicalsuperstore bio bulbs and get happy in sumulated daylight sell your house and go and live on the sea out of range of all these gvts you sound like a cameron/queen boot boy still she gave you a c.b.e..what a low down journalistic trick to get into swing politics..