Nigel Farage comes out fighting on this one (as a smoker who hates shivering in the rain, he knows what he is talking about), culminating in:
"What are the EU going to ban next? Central Heating? ... Surely people should be able to sit outside their houses in the evening without the EU granting them permission.”
Personally, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did suggest banning central heating, that involves burning gas**, doesn't it? If that's an argument against patio heaters, then the same argument must apply to central heating. And cooking. And about one-third of our electricity generation.
* And yes, this doesn't just mean outside pubs and cafés, this includes patio heaters in your own back garden.
** Sure, patio heaters use butane gas, derived from oil, rather than natural gas, but it's the same general principle.
Friday, 1 February 2008
EU parliament votes to ban patio heaters*
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5 comments:
Go Nigel! Utterly ridiculous, and only 26 votes against. Shameful. Of course now pubs might build smoking rooms/shelters which will subject smokers to large amounts of second hand smoke and create carbon emissions in their construction. Then I suppose we just ought to ban humans. That would solve the problem at a stroke.
I'm reading a great book at the moment by Rob Grant called FAT. Not entirely related to this post Mark but the same principle. This is part of a quote from the back cover:
"....Grant's new novel is both an hilarious satire on our readiness to devour 'facts' and dodgy science along with our doughnuts, and an unexpectedly moving story ...."
It's a poignant tale of 3 people and how they react, in different ways, to the nanny state.
First lightbulbs, now patio heaters. It won't be long before they ban man's oldest tool. Oh no... they already did that... Sticks and rocks then, mayhaps?
This is the EU parliament, not an EU body with any power. No need to worry, it will never become law and they know it - it is just symbolism - sending a message. If we are to believe all this global warming stuff, I do sort of get the point about banning patio heaters - heating the outside air has got to be pretty wasteful of energy, hasn't it? I know it is nothing compared to energy we waste through lack of home insulation or transport but as Tesco says 'every little helps'.
"If we are to believe all this global warming stuff..."
Are doubts starting to creep in?
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