Just stumbled across the following quote from Ed Miliband - whilst wondering about the pros and cons of electricity "Smart Meters". From the article Smart energy meters in every UK home by 2020 on the Guardian website.

"The meters most of us have in our homes were designed for a different age, before climate change," said Ed Miliband, the energy and climate change secretary. "Now we need to get smarter with our energy ... so it's important we design a system that brings best value to everyone involved."

Not quite sure when "the age before climate change" occurred. Presumably he's referring to the time 4.3 billion years ago prior to the formation of planet Earth. Still a bit apprehensive of smart meters, as the ultimate objective is presumably to introduce ever more sophisticated snooping on personal energy use, up to the point where they decide you've exceeded your allocated carbon footprint and your lights automatically switch off until you send all your money to Al Gore...