Wednesday 7 January 2009

Will the last journalist on the Daily Mail please switch off the lights?

Normally, I treat the Daily Mail like flatulence at a bridge night: if nobody mentions it, it doesn't exist. But seeing the front page in the newsagents today reminded me what a squalid rag it is. The headline is: 

The Great Lightbulb Revolt: Robbed of their Right to buy Traditional Lightbulbs, Millions are Clearing Shelves of Last Supplies.

Obviously, there's no actual, y'know, evidence that 'millions' of people are 'clearing the shelves', though I'm prepared to accept that some people are taking the opportunity to buy bulbs for odd fittings which may not be compatible with non-wasteful, less-polluting bulbs (and in any case, they may be all that's left in Woolworths). What I really object to is the idea that some 'they' has 'robbed' decent honest English folk of the right to buy 'traditional' bulbs. They've only been around for 100 years or so. What's the qualification for traditional now? Is a tradition simply something that's been around for a while? Or is there some kind of whites-only dance associated with the installation of 'traditional' bulbs? And 'robbed' clearly means simply 'phased out for the public good by an elected government in concert with other elected governments on the basis that they're useless, outdated and damaging'. 
Hang on, I think I understand why the Daily Mail might be feeling threatened.

PS. According to Radio 4 just now, the bulbs aren't even being withdrawn by law: it's a voluntary initiative by retailers. Fascists!

1 comment:

Benjamin Judge said...

Hello. I saw this and was going to mention it. I guess I should be quicker of the mark. Someone at work had the paper and there was more inside. A lot of 'what do we really know about these new bulbs?' and 'how safe are they?' rubbish. It was implied, if not actually stated, that these foreign lightbulbs should go back to their own fittings. The asylum seeker light bulb. The Al Qaida light bulb. The dirty bomb light bulb. The Nigerian e-mail scam light bulb. The house price light bulb. The 9/11 light bulb. The Jack Ruby light bulb. The Al Gore light bulb. The gay lightbulb. The black lightbulb. The Brussels lightbulb. The single-parent lightbulb. The binge drinker lightbulb. The tolerant lightbulb. The liberal lightbulb.