Watt's Wrong?

Yesterday's Mail On Sunday carried the following piece. Apparently those crazy guys running the European Union have decided that from next year all light bulbs on sale should no longer be labelled in Watts but in Lumen's instead.

They claim this will make things easier for us consumers to understand. Hello? We already understand that a 60W bulb will burn brighter than say a 40W one. Now that 60W bulb will be labelled 800Lm. This move will just confuse the public.

The Watt is an internationally agreed SI unit (System International) of power measurement. OK with my professional hat on, I know that the Watt is basically the measure of power consumed and the Lumen directly relates to light output levels but that doesn't matter; the public perception is that light bulbs are rated in Watts, which we all understand.

Perhaps the issue really is that James Watt was British and Lumen comes from France or Germany and we all know Europe is run by those two countries...