On Standby

Out of necessity I've had to purchase a new idiot's lantern. It's nothing particularly special, I don't really watch much television but I'm pretty pleased with it.

Naturally the box was festooned with copious environmental messages, most of them images with red lines through, telling you not what to do such as; don't dispose of in a wheelie bin, or throw it at your neighbour's cat - that sort of thing. On the box also was a large logo with the words "Planet First: Making the world a greener, cleaner place to live".

Inside the box, the 'think of the polar bears' theme continues. Included is a foil sticker which contains an EU energy rating and has energy consumption figures on it. Mine is rated 'A' so apparently that's good (it looks remarkably similar to those foil club badges in Panini football sticker albums).

And so onto the instruction manual. Now, don't expect it tell you how to set the tv up, because it won't, there's the e-manual on the tv to do that - saves paper you see. So you have to turn the set on in order to get instructions on how to plug the tv in. Instead, in the paper version, we get more environmental messages such as the carbon footprint and the following advice:

Do not leave your tv in standby mode for long periods of time, as a small amount of electric power is still consumed.

So all well and good, I've bought a new tv and have nice warm feeling inside that I've done my bit for the environment.

However, there's a problem...

There's one feature my shiny new tv doesn't have that all my previous ones did...an on/off button. It doesn't have one, no push button, no rocker switch, no nothing. That then leaves only two options. Either unplugging the set, which means clambering around the back, fighting the cable spaghetti to unplug it from a four gang socket (for Mrs TBF this is a complete non starter). Or...wait for it...leave it on standby...permanently.

Genius, eh?