Lights Out

From today it has become illegal under EU law, to import or manufacture traditional, and popular, incandescent 60 watt light bulbs. Our unelected unaccountable Government, immune from the ballot box, is in effect trying to tell us how to light our own houses. Well that isn't going to happen in my case, in fact I took recent action of removing the only (still working) low energy bulbs I had and throwing them in the non- recycling / landfill bill. I don't think I'm supposed to do that - whoops.

But as Mary Ellen Synon points out there's more to this ban than simply trying to 'save energy':

On offer in their place at the bricolage were light bulbs for five and six times the price but you know about that wheeze. What no once can know is how many millions the electrical goods industry has spent on their lobbying operation here in Brussels to get this change through, and how much they spent on experts to 'help' draft this legislation. The EU has now made it possible for the industry to expect you and me to spend 30 quid on a light bulb.

There are though two unintended consequences for the EU; firstly it will encourage a flourishing black market which I suspect a significant motivation will be two fingers up at the EU and the second, and probably more important, it makes the EU even more visible. Increasingly the EU no longer hides behind national institutions to conceal its power, it instead is becoming more confident of making decisions that can be directly linked to it.

And this is where the faux Eurosceptics are so far behind the curve that even the Hubble telescope would be useless as an aid to help them find it. They can posture all they want, but as the EU continues to integrate - its effects thus becoming more visible - then the Tory increasingly schizophrenic argument of 'in Europe not ruled by it' becomes ever more ridiculous, and obviously so. The Tory so-called Eurosceptics are being left behind as a relevance at a rapid rate.

It won't be the faux Eurosceptics Tories that get us out, nor the dry details of the another European institution power grab but the likes of the humble incandescent light bulb.