State control of the population

Sustainable development and environmentally-friendly living have become the twin mantras of the modern age. Only this morning as I drove my BMW 4X4 the short distance from home to work I was treated to more water torture of controlling drivel on Radio 5 Live. Some toss about how single men are a threat to the planet, because they leave the Sky Plus box on standby.
There was even a suggestion that communal living was a better way. That single households were to blame....for what?
It's summer and there's sod all to talk about on the news, apart from Lebanon, so this may be throw away chit chat. But be aware that some policy wonk or other will begin seriously suggesting tax breaks for communes. A new tax on fridges. A levy on DVD players. A fine if you don't take your plastic bottles to the tip (I do, by the way, but then I drive a car with plenty of room).
The solution to the greenhouse effect, if it exists, does not lie in peddling guilt and micro-management of people's lives. It lies in developing better and more effecient energy resources. But this doesn't interest the busybodies, quangos and self appointed environmental do gooders. This all comfortably satisfies a need to control, legislate and nanny, because underpinning it is a world view that says people cannot be trusted to control their own lives so we must do it for them.