Imagine Letting A 'Guardian' Sourpuss Tell You What To Spend Your Money On...

So says Hannah Fearn, according to her 'Guardian' bio, a freelancer writer and reporter specialising in social affairs. And doesn't her picture do her column justice?

Fifteen years ago, it was the wood burner: an unnecessary middle-class indulgence that, despite causing untold environmental damage, started popping up in homes across the country. They became symbolic of a certain affluence that allows a privileged few to live in optimum comfort at all times. Now there’s a new kid on the block: the portable air-conditioning unit.

Oh, horrors! People might be able to keep cool! This will never do! 

At between £300 and £1,000 a pop, they’re not cheap – but they certainly make three or four weeks of good UK weather each year easier to handle.

Great! Right? No. Of course not. 

At what cost?

You just told us, love. Between £300-1000.  

This week National Grid readied another coal-fired power station to cope with the extra demand placed on the energy networks by offices and homes switching on air-conditioning units.

Well, maybe it's me, but isn't that a good thing? A company reacting to demand from its customers? Planning ahead? 

Well, Reader, not in Ms PursedLips' world, it's not...  

Just as wood burners are being phased out by law as we start to fully understand the damage they do to climate and also lung health, we now need to consider a ban on some air-conditioning units – particularly when used at the mildest of warm temperatures.

Yes, of course, a ban is the first - and often only - thing these NuPuritans reach for.  

When it’s 26C outside, the average British home simply doesn’t need air-conditioning. It might feel nicer, but making you a little more comfortable isn’t the government’s job.

Really? So we can start dismantling the panoply of 'hate crime' legislation then? And all those proposals for limiting freedom of speech on the Web?

Oh, that wasn't what you meant? *shrugs* Can't put that genie back in the bottle, can we? 

Why Not Chinese Lanterns..?

Nature charities joined fire chiefs in calling for a ban on disposable barbecues yesterday, branding them a menace to the environment.

Aren't they just as much of a danger? Given disposable barbecues tend to at least stay put, while lanterns go whereever the wind takes them?

I wonder why you aren't calling for a ban on those? Still, I guess the majority of fires must be being caused b...

Oh!

Around 4 per cent of serious accidental fires are ‘robustly linked’ to barbecue use, Home Office figures show.

To stop 4% of fires, we should inconvenience 100% of customers?  

A petition demanding a ban had last night gathered more than 14,500 signatures.

It's probably far exceeded that now, as every Karen and misery-guts and Virtuesignaller in the country flings themselves on the bandwagon as it trundles by...