Do we need war-time frugality???

Yes, says the climate change people...

The Energy Saving Trust campaign will revive a number of ideas seen during the Second World War, such as the "Dig for Victory" campaign to encourage people to grow fruit and vegetables and "Don't be Fuelish", encouraging people to cut their energy use.

But this time instead of saving resources because the country is at war, the effort is intended to cut waste and carbon emissions in an effort to slow global warming.

A survey of more than 1,500 people commissioned by the EST found around 70 per cent thought local communities should work together more to help manage resources in an echo of the communal nature of the wartime effort.

Examples could include sharing leftover food with neighbours or car sharing.

More than half of respondents thought measures such as rationing or personal daily allowances were needed to help the British public cut down on excess.

Launching the Wartime Spirit campaign at the Imperial War Museum, Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust, said "frugality" is about to come back into fashion.

"We are certainly not advocating a return to rationing or indeed enforced personal daily allowances," he said. "However if we could adopt just a few of the practices used during the war, such as recycling bath water for watering plants, then it would go a long way towards saving energy and reducing our carbon footprint."