The government declares that gas boilers are better than heat pumps

The government has just announced that gas boilers, that old technology, are better than heat pumps, that new, green and wondrous technology. That’s what is actually meant by the newly announced ban:

Gas boilers will be banned in all newly built homes within three years under the government’s plan to tackle climate change.

If the heat pump option was in fact better for consumers then there would be no need for the ban. Everyone would naturally gravitate to the better solution because that’s how us humans work. It’s also how technological advance works. We observe, ooooh, that looks good, we adopt and that’s how change happens.

The very insistence that the older technology many not be used is an admission, a declaration even, that the newer is not better.