So apparently Ireland is to be the first country in the world to ban standard incandescent light bulbs; we’ll be CFL-only next year.

I am in love with this idea. In fact, I am increasingly enamoured with all kinds of forced activism, or perhaps more accurately, forced environmentalism. I love the plastic bag charge. I love the WEEE charge, too, especially the part where the retailer has to take your old electrical appliance back for recycling.

I wonder, though, how many people really take advantage of that. Many people, I suspect, just dump their old toaster into the bin to clutter up a landfill instead of dragging it off to Argos to be recycled. That’s why I like the lightblub scheme; it removes the can’t be arsed option.

This is the kind of Stalinist regime I can really get behind.