The Italian Necktie - Under threat?

From the Telegraph:

With temperatures soaring, and air conditioners running at full blast, Italians have been ordered by the government to shed their ties in order to cool down.
Livia Turco, the health minister, has sent a memo to "all government employees and private Italians" which states that the "small gesture" can lead to "an immediate fall in body temperature of between two and three degrees".
She said that if ties were taken off, there would be "health benefits, and consequently there would be less need to use artificial air conditioning".
Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, the environment minister, said he had already told his department to doff their ties. He even claimed that ties made their wearers hotter than jackets.
A tie-less culture has been quickly embraced by many Italians, including Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, and Riccardo Illy, the coffee baron and regional governor of Friuli.
However, some Italians said it was a sartorial disgrace. Alain Elkann, a writer and the husband of Margherita Agnelli, the Fiat heiress, said it was impolite.
"I have never failed to wear a tie in public in 40 years," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. At most, he would remove his jacket.

Personally, I'm on the side of the tie-wearers.