You’ve got to hand it to the Germans. Certain movements in the earlier parts of the last century might not have done too much for the national image but by golly are they making up for it now. They’ve basically got everything sorted. Their trains run to the second, they’re big on beer and meat and now they’ve found a way to cut their electricity bills by 25% without upsetting anyone.

You see, inventor Dieter Grote has designed a system for the town of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz whereby the streetlights can be controlled by mobile phone and so left switched off at night until…