Panic buyers scoop up last stocks of 100W bulbs.

Occasionally, whilst driving, I listen to LBC radio to hear what James Whale and the other right wing loons are currently obsessed with.

At the moment, it is light bulbs. I'm not joking: light bulbs.

You see, the EU have decided to phase out the old 100 watt bulb as new energy efficient bulbs are better for the environment.

This has set off a tidal wave of right wing lunacy as people demand it is their democratic right to be able to light their homes with inefficient bulbs, and papers like the Daily Mail are championing their cause.

According to the Daily Mail, one panic buyer, Loretta Spottiswood from Ham, in south west London, said she had stockpiled 50 of the bulbs at her home.

"My neighbour opposite has energy saving bulbs and the lights are horrible and they take ages to warm up," she said.

They are stockpiling them. Demanding that it is their right to spend more money to light their homes, no matter what the environmental cost.

It's not the idiocy of individual consumers which appals me, it's the fact that LBC and the Daily Mail have actually taken up their cause. They are making idiocy the focal point of their campaign, as if their right to be stupid is something that desperately needs to be defended.

I remember being this dumb when I was in my teens, objecting when Thatcher brought in a law demanding that we all wear seat belts in cars; as if flying through a windscreen during a crash was somehow my democratic right.

Now the right wing are up in arms over light bulbs. To listen to James Whale prattling on, one would think that democracy itself was under threat from "political correctness gone mad."

It's a light bulb. They really need to get themselves a sense of perspective.

Tags: right wing lunacy, 100 watt light bulbs, political correctness, James Whale