So I asked Why does my ceiling lights require some other outlet in the room to be turned on and off again before it works? a while ago, and the consensus was that my electrics were arcing and that I should check with an electrician.
Well, I have done that and he told me to try swapping our energy saving light bulbs with regular ones and to see what happens. Once I did this the lights worked as normal (switch them on they come on, off and they go off - no need to turn on any other electrical appliance).
He also made a survey of my house and what he said was that we simply need to replace one switch (a dimmer that makes a buzzing sound that he thinks is dangerous) and to replace the fuse box (which he estimates to be about 30 years old).
As you can tell, I know nothing about electrics, so does this seem reasonable? Would changing the fuse box mean that I can use energy saving bulbs again?