Sin Tracker: patio heaters

Monitoring the alleged sins of modern life

A new evil is stalking the land. The Energy Saving Trust (EST), a body founded by and partly financed by the government, has decided it does not like patio heaters. Its chief executive, Philip Sellwood, is quoted in an EST press release as suggesting that people should wear a jumper instead. He is also trying to discourage shops from selling them.

According to an article on BBC online the campaign is having some success: “Wyevale Garden Centres and Marks and Spencer have stopped stocking them, and the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone has urged others to follow.”

So not only are we being encouraged to curb our drinking, eating and smoking but we are being asked to sit in the cold instead. But surely Sellwood does not go far enough according to his own logic. Manufacturing jumpers no doubt also creates carbon emissions. So perhaps we should all be prepared to sit outside naked in mid-winter? Or maybe we should give up socialising all together and stay indoors, on our own, with a low fat, organically produced ready meal?