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How many Lords does it take to change a lightbulb?

Tuesday, January 29, 2008
(Updated with exciting apparent possibility of plagiarism by Lord Rooker)

One to take it out of the socket, one to open the window, and one to drive to the tip, cough, local civic amenity site:

Lord Stoddart of Swindon asked Her Majesty's Government:

    Whether they intend to take action to inform all households and businesses in what way they should safely dispose of used fluorescent light bulbs and how they should deal with breakages, bearing in mind the toxic substances contained in those commodities.

The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker (1))

However, it is sensible for householders to take reasonable precautions in cleaning up and disposing of a broken bulb, such as ventilating the room for 15 minutes. A broken bulb can be taken to a local civic amenity site. Local authorities are under an obligation to provide such sites for the disposal of household waste. Source

I for one, would love to know how many people will follow this advice, and also how tip workers would react. Presuming that only green / safety obsessives and the mentally unhinged (at the risk of a redundancy...) would go through with this pantomime, doubtless only public transport would be good enough for transporting this flask of anthrax equivalent, and driver, passengers et al would have to be alerted. I suspect hilarity would ensue.


(1) Rooker has form: "Rather than build a water grid, it would be much better to move the population and centres of Government and reconfigure the country more fairly".

Update.

An Anonymous commentator (who thinks I was being flippant - yes, very guilty) draws our attention to what the US EPA has to say on fluorescent tubes. Compare and contrast what it says with what Rooker says:

EPA: "CFLs contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 5 milligrams – about the amount that would cover the tip of a ballpoint pen...No mercury is released when the bulbs are intact or in use".

Rooker: "I would like to take this opportunity to reassure the House that while energy efficient bulbs do contain a small amount of mercury (enough to cover the tip of a ball point pen) it cannot escape from an intact bulb".

EPA: "The following steps can be performed by the general public: 1. Open a window and leave the room for 15 minutes or more"

Rooker: "However, it is sensible for householders to take reasonable precautions in cleaning up and disposing of a broken bulb, such as ventilating the room for 15 minutes".

Has the Lord just had a Joe Biden moment? If so, why don't we just be done with him and direct Lord Stoddart to google?

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posted by Croydonian

'Lord' Jeff Rooker not so hot on logic

Monday, October 16, 2006
This nomination for the single most brain-dead comment made by a British minister, certainly this week and possibly for very much longer goes to Jeff Rooker. Care of the Evening Standard, we have this:

"The peer said that the best thing was for people to consider moving to wetter parts of the country, including Wales, Scotland and the Midlands. "There is no question that the population and resources in this country are spread very unevenly," he said. "There is something immoral about taking a resource from other areas of the country to the South East. Rather than build a water grid, it would be much better to move the population and centres of Government and reconfigure the country more fairly."

Right Jeff, if we can drop the title - how do you feel about the transfer of wealth from London to the rest of the country? Or redistribution full stop? What about the Labour governments in the 1970s you were lobby fodder for which nationalised areas of the economy supposedly for the national, rather than local, good? Maybe when you were a councillor in Birmingham, and then an MP for the same city you told voters interested in schools, housing, leisure centres or whatever that they should move house? Then again you introduced a bill to abolish the House of Lords in 1980, so long term consistency isn't your strong point, clearly. At the moment you are a Minister for Sustainable Farming and Food, so perhaps if the good people of Perry Barr, or come to that Croydon, want food they should move somewhere near an apple tree, or a pig or a tofu facory?

Meanwhile, I'm just itching to see what will undoutedly be your well-thought out plan "to move the population and centres of Government and reconfigure the country more fairly".



Honestly, battling against the idiocies of the age is like swimming through glue.

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posted by Croydonian