The other day, I bought a traditional 100 Watt incandescent light bulb from my local supermarket whilst they were still in stock, since it will become illegal to manufacture or import these from 1st September 2009 under new EU legislation.

Of course it's claimed that this will save up to 15m tonnes of CO2, which represents a hefty decrease of 0.00375% of the 4 billion tons produced every year in the EU. But wait... Since I use my light bulb only in the dark, which most of the time is in the winter, the 90% of the energy not utilized for light generation by my bulb helps warm my house and save on central heating. I've signed up for a “green” electricity account, so that this heating is produced from renewable resources. If everybody could do the same, vast amounts of fossil fuels needed by gas fired central heating systems could be saved, making the polar bears very happy.

The unelected Brussels bureaucrats who've imposed this legislation upon us will no doubt point out the supposed benefits in the fight against global warming and climate change. “I don't think this climate of over-zealous moralism on the environment helps us." Not my words, but those of Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission when asked to comment by BBC tv on his choice of family car, a Volkswagen Toureg, emitting around 350 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven and thus one of the worst polluting cars on the market.

Hereby, I rest my case. Facta, non verba. Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.