Archive for the ‘energy’ Category
Posted by michael on December 29, 2009
Naturally Labour are desperate to show a class war with the Conservatives helping their rich friends and New Labour helping their poor, lower paid supporters.
The poor, lower paid have of course been the focus of the the last 12 years of New Labour in government?
Actually NO! Labour have failed to look after the lower paid. They have failed to support their union friends.
Living standards for the poor are worse now than 12 years ago.
Child poverty, despite the money spent on it, is as bad as it ever was.
Education standards are lower in state schools!
New Labour like their millionaire friends, to have (several) expensive houses, to be photographed with important people, to jump when the USA tells them to!
New Labour have no right to claim that they care for the poor. The traditional left-wing Labour MPs appear to have been sidelined!
Blair and Brown and many of their ministers would appear to be only interested in living the high life! Now the chickens are steadily coming home to roost and New Labour are beginning to understand that they have isolated themselves from almost all areas of society.
An example of Brown and Labour putting themselves before the country is the refusal of this government to stand down now and have an election.
The UK is in desperate straits. The finances are shot. The debts are huge and will take years to pay back. Public Services are being cut. Decisions are being taken by a government whose focus is on surviving the next six months.
How can that be good for the UK? We need decisive action and long term decision making. Whilst New Labour hang on to power looking for ways to survive, they are putting the interests of the UK after the interests of the country!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Euopean Union, UK Economy, benefits, climate change, council tax, credit crunch, crime, debt, economy, education, energy, financial, health, military, national health service, recession, renewable energy, war | Tagged: bankers, conservative, cost of living, credit crunch, david cameron, debt, families, government, recession, UK Economy, war | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on October 9, 2009
There is a potential disaster heading our way over the next 10 years.
There has been a lot of talk recently about an energy ‘gap’ around 2016. What that means to the ordinary person is that there will be shortages of electricity at peak periods.
Why? Because the investment is not in place for our increasing demand for electricity to be met.
A contract was very recently agreed for four new, latest generation nuclear power stations. All very good but at least three years too late! The first station is due to be operating in 2018. That is if everything goes well and the planning permissions don’t spend years in the courts being granted!
Another aggravating factor is that a number of UK coal and oil power stations are due to be decommissioned by the end of 2015.
New fossil fuel power stations (mostly coal) are needed but global warming and climate change concerns means that they should only be operating with carbon capture technology – which isn’t available yet!
Note that a number of fossil fuel power stations are needed by 2015 just to stand still, ie to replace old stations going out of service .
Renewable energy sources are promising. Wind farms are producing electricity now, and more are due to be built. But wind farms only operate when there is wind! The fossil fuel and nuclear stations can be turned down when energy from renewable sources is available, but the fossil fuel and nuclear stations will have to be able to meet the peak demand for electricity on their own!
Businesses and private homes can do a lot by using electricity efficiently and avoiding heat loss through insulation etc but the real problem is in generating electricity efficiently.
The government has the job to ensure that the lights do not go out. At this moment of time it would seem that they are failing in their responsibilities!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, UK Economy, climate change, energy, energy bills, labour, renewable energy, utility | Tagged: credit crunch, david cameron, electricity, energy, families, gordon brown, government, new labour, power, recession, renewable energy, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on July 15, 2009
Lord Mandelson, who seems to be in charge of everything despite not being an elected MP, has said that Britain is facing a decade of public spending “constraints” in order to “rebalance” the country’s finances.
A ‘constraint‘ in public spending is not technically a ‘cut‘ in public spending but it definately means that less money will be spent on public spending!!!
So we now know that less money will be available for public services, which is anyone’s book is a CUT.
If the politicans want to ringfence, say, the NHS and defence, then there will be even LESS money available for the remaining public services. Yet Brown continually says that the NHS will not be affected.
Lord Mandelson said there would be “less spending in some programmes”, but “sustained investment” in areas like healthcare and defence would continue.
He also said the recession was “coming to an end,” but the effects of its “severity” were “not yet behind us”.
Why do you think that New Labour has delayed its planned review of future public spending from April 2010 until after the next general election! (I have learned to be cynical about what this government says!)
The Tories say ministers are hiding the true scale of cuts that are needed.
David Cameron has accused the government of refusing to commit to a spending review before the next general election “because they do not want to own up to the cuts they are planning”.
Look at the language the government ministers are using!
“spending choices” would have to be made’ – which means that some services will get reduced money no money!
a decade of public spending “constraints” in order to “rebalance” the country’s finances
Of course we will rebalance public finances in the medium term
the recession was “coming to an end,” but the effects of its “severity” were “not yet behind us”
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, UK Economy, credit crunch, debt, economy, energy, energy bills, financial, labour, national health service, nhs, recession, tax | Tagged: banker, bankers, banking, brown, conservative, credit, credit crunch, david cameron, gordon brown, government, recession, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on July 11, 2009
The government is about to announce plans to scrap Daily Living Allowance (DLA) and attendance allowance (AA) according to a report in the Guardian.
The newspaper claims that a green paper was due out in June which proposes to convert DLA and AA into means tested ‘social care grants’ which would be spent by social services. However, the incoming DWP minister Yvette Cooper wanted some breathing space before launching the controversial new proposal.
Under the plans, DLA and AA would be scrapped, with the money saved being handed over to local authorities to administer as discretionary grants to provide care for the sick and disabled.
The grants would be means-tested and the local authority would decide what they could be spent on. This would be likely to be for services such as a personal assistant to help with getting out of bed, washing and dressing.
The government has claimed that any changes to DLA and AA will not affect current claimants.
But how could it be otherwise? At the moment many people on DLA and AA are cared for by their relatives. Some of the carers are able to claim Carers Allowance for more that 30 hours caring during a week. But most carers are relatives who do not get paid for caring.
Under the new system it would seem that paid council employees (or employees of sub-contracted companies) will now care for all people who need care.
This alone would surely cost more than the country can afford (which in reality is not much because the UK is as good as bankrupt under Labour!).
With thinking like this, it is a short step to stop anyone getting all kinds of benefits. After all who needs to give claimants money? The state could deliver the food that they want those on benefits to eat. The state could buy the clothes that those on benefits are to wear!
Or is the whole issue that the UK cannot afford to support disabled and sick people any more?
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Lib Dems, benefits, debt, economy, energy, energy bills, health, labour, nhs | Tagged: benefit, benefits, brown, conservative, david cameron, disability, disabled, economy, gordon brown, government, labour, sick, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on June 7, 2009
The New Labour vote has collapsed. Perhaps it is because Gordon Brown’s handling of the UK economy is so poor. The UK economy is in a terrible state, the consequences are going to have to be massive tax rises to pay for the incompetence of those running the country.
The recent elections have hit Labour hard. They blame the expenses row. But the Conservatives have done very well in both the local elections and the European election. So have the Libdems. So it cannot just be the expenses mess.
Perhaps people understand that New Labor and Gordon Brown are responsible for the expenses problems!
All the Labour people on TV and the radio seem to think that there is no competent person in the party who could do a better job than Brown who has actually got everything wrong. Perhaps they are right!
Posted in Blogroll, Conservatives, Euopean Union, Europe, Lib Dems, UK Economy, council tax, credit crunch, debt, economy, energy, financial, labour, mp expenses, recession, utility | Tagged: bankers, bankrupt, bnp, brown, conservative, credit crunch, david cameron, debt, economy, eu, Europe, gordon brown, government, labour, recession, repossession, UK Economy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by michael on January 24, 2009
There was a story in the press this week regarding a World War 2 veteran and his problems with his electricity supplier. It highlights a real problem in our society today with how we treat vulnerable people.
If someone has a problem paying their electricity bills the power supply companies install a pre-payment meter, sometimes without the permission of the customer!
On face value this may seem to be the answer, and it may well be so for a few people, but take a moment to consider the ramifications of doing this for the elderly and the vulnerable people in our modern society.
The first point is that the customer will not be able to go into debt to the power supplier. OK I hear you say! But what happens if the customers, mostly people on low incomes who are often vulnerable people through age or illness, have no money to put in the meter?
They will have no electricity. They will have no lights, they may not be able to cook food or have a hot drink, they will not be able to listen to a radio or watch television (if they have one). It could be days before a visitor turns up and discovers what has happened.
A hell of a way to treat a vulnerable person in a so-called civilized society!
What is clear is that pre-payment meters exist solely for the benefit of the power supply companies. It means that they won’t have to sort out debt problems from customers who simply cannot go into debt if they have had a pre-payment meter installed.
Unfortunately the customers are often elderly, sick or vulnerable people who often cannot cope with what is going on around them.
Another aspect of having pre-payment meters installed, and one that I find really appalling, is that the unit cost of electricity is higher than the unit cost normally paid by consumers!
So we have elderly, sick or vulnarable people, who are mostly on fixed incomes, forced to pay more per unit out of their limited incomes on their electricity, and we still cut them off the moment they run out of money!
It is time that prepayment meters were banned where elderly, sick or vulnerable people are involved. Their lives are at risk if they have no power, especially in winter. But the quality of their lives is made so much worse if they are unable to use electricity for basic things like cooking, reading and keeping warm.
Society seems to care so much for people’s rights. There is such a fuss about ‘equality’, we mustn’t hurt people’s feelings, etc. etc. But we don’t mind treating our elderly, sick or vulnerable people in a worse way than we would ever be allowed to treat an animal!
Does the government understand this? Of course it does! If I do then they do. Since they allow pre-payment meters for electricity then they presumably don’t care! Perhaps they have worked out that there are not enough votes in sorting this out to make it worth the effort.
Posted in Blogroll, UK Economy, credit crunch, energy, energy bills | Tagged: electricity, meter, pre-payment, rights | Leave a Comment »
