Let me start off by saying I like the environment--I try to do environmentally friendly things, being able to shed my car when I moved to the UK was a plus! But I have just seen something that confirms my increasing suspicion that the UK really does not like heat! There is a movement in the EU to ban outdoor heaters, patio heaters as bad for the environment.

Now of course I realize that the EU is not the UK and that the UK has frequent differences of opinion with EU policy. On this one, however, I predict, they will stand ( coldly) side by side( Togetherness produces warmth)with such websits as http://www.patioheatersareevil.com/ to promote the cause.

My little heating unit in Bleak Towers sputters to life about five minutes a day. It reluctantly sends a small stream of tepid air about two millimeters from its vent, and then chokes to a halt, having done its job. Stand three milimeters from the vent and you are in immediate danger from frostbite. The room is occassionaly clogged up with intrepid souls training for a South Pole expedition. THAT IS NOT HEAT!!!!

Fortunately, my little fan heater comes to the rescue and produces a more generous amount of heat--it sometimes manages to bring the entire room to a comfortable level. Comfortable is a relative thing, I have taken to wearing 3 layers of long underwear and polar fleece to sleep!

Of course the object is not to create tropical indoors, and certainly not a tropical outdoors in winter, or in non tropical northern European climes...but surely a happy medium exists?

This written as I down copious amounts of citrus fruit and huddle over warm drinks hoping to fend off what feels like an impending case of a bad flu, which I am blaming on the drafty conditions in Bleak Towers.

Mmm I like it cold.. but then I am northern

But saying that there is generally no happy medium in buildings in this country.. buildings tend to be either roasting hot or freezing cold.. The building where I work seems to have only two heater settings on or off. So of course they have it on and I end up being cooked in my labcoat every day.

The website, www.patioheatersareevil.com offers tips on how to live without patio heaters. One of them is to stay inside--because that is why there are houses...but what about heat INSIDE? Another tip is to move somewhere warm, a third to wear a jumper and a fourth, to show some grit!

The second option is tempting--but the PhD is a minor obstacle. Field work on the equator might become a new facet of my research. Wear a jumper? How about two or three and long underwear and polar fleece besides? Showing grit? Not with a flu coming on....

I agree, Tricky, in my limited time here, that its either roasting hot or freezing cold! There seems to be no gently regulated constant temperature...whatever that desirable temperature might be.

in russia, at least formerly, it was indeed so, that the heater was either on or off and no regulation was possible. people got used to that. i lived with a russian friend (outside of russia) for a long time and he tended to walk around nearly naked in a totally overheated house - it was hard to get him used to the notion that you don't take all your clothes off as soon as you come inside, but instead don't put the heater up all the way.

"Now of course I realize that the EU is not the UK"

What makes you think that this is the case. Of course, some UK people tend to ignore or hate the fact, but let me remind you that the UK is in fact a small part of the EU, full member with all the respective rights but also duties.

(*I just become the most unpopular person on this forum)

The UK is of course an EU Member--but it has a distinct political and legal existence apart from the body of the EU. Being a Member does not make it the same as the EU itself--members of the EU can well differ in their views from EU positions-take the pound/euro debate for instance.

I don't think this is the case. I am sure you are aware of the differences between membership in the European Union and membership in the currency union. Naturally, the UK is not a member of the latter. These are two completely unrelated matters.

Nevertheless, once decisions are made in the context of an EU summit and all heads of states/primeministers etc. have signed and ratified it, as in the case of the new EU treaty, public debate within individual countries will not prevent these changes to occur. So even if some UK citizen still don't accept this as a fact, it is actually reality and the UK is currently affected by EU legislation - with an increasing tendency. For example, the new EU driving license legislation is now being implemented in the UK over the next few years. That will mean the introduction of more hurdles for practical and theoretical driving tests, just to give an example. Sorry, this is slightly off topic.

However, each country is still independent to a certain extent. But some EU legislation can outrule national legislation.

The UK also managed not to sign the Maastricht contract of 1992, that's why continental Europeans need to show their passports or ID cards in order to enter the UK.

That's a bit like they hypothetical example of one state within the United States of America not allowing its citizen to enter without valid identification - like re-introducing border and customs control in order to be able to travel from Florida to Georgia and back.

Ah, the joys of a federalist system--which might sit easier within common law than civil law. The EU comprised of mainly what civil law states? Is the UK the only common law state in the EU?

As well, while the rest of the EU ( except I am not sure about the Republic of Ireland) drives on the right hand side of the road ( and presumably then duck right on the pavement), the opposite is true in the UK.

Is civil law inherently more positive than common law?