Wednesday, November 24, 2010

This is what climate extremism has brought us too.

Fuel bills are high in the UK, some of it is down to the fact that foreign ownership of UK energy firms is used to subsidise foreign fuel prices, but a lot of it has to do with the climate levy that's added on to every household and industrial bill to "save the planet from climate change." The higher costs to industry also mean that higher costs of other services are passed on to us, it's a vicious cycle. What it means in reality is that people, particularly the old and vulnerable die as they count the pennies and make decisions on the grounds of stay warm or eat.
One of the measures of civilisation is how we treat our old folk, in the UK, it's not terribly well.

Express.
THOUSANDS of pensioners died from cold-related illnesses last winter as heating bills soared and temperatures plummeted, official figures reveal.
The number of deaths linked to the cold between December and March reached 25,400 in England and Wales, with another 2,760 in Scotland.
The figures are equivalent to nine deaths every hour.
The total gave Britain the highest winter death rate in northern Europe, worse than much colder countries such as Finland and Sweden.
There are fears the death toll could increase this year following energy price rises which may frighten elderly people into not turning on their heating.
Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said: “It’s unacceptable that tens of thousands more older people die in this country every winter from the effects of the cold weather. The fact that the UK has one of the highest winter mortality rates in Europe makes it clear this is very much a home-grown problem.
“Behind these statistics lie deep-seated social issues, such as one in three over-60s living in houses which fail the ‘decent home’ standard.”
 According to the weather forecasts we're in for a particularly cold winter, though as they struggle to tell us what the weather will be like the day after tomorrow such predictions can be taken with a pinch of salt, or not, only time will tell, though I do reckon we're overdue a bad winter.
There's no doubt though, pensioners will die this winter due to the cold, it could be worse if we have a flu epidemic on top of it too. However government and environmentalists are adamant that better insulation rather than cheaper electricity and gas is the way to go, though few pensioners can afford either. Of course there's the suspicion that some environmentalists want a cull of the human race anyway, though pensioners is the wrong target group, still I suppose it would reduce the pensions deficit too from a strictly pragmatic government view.
A large majority in the UK now either totally disbelieve man made climate change, or think it doesn't matter, it's time the government caught up with this view too. Remove the green levy and keep our pensioners warm this winter and bring prices down elsewhere, give us all a break from the holier than thou environmental movement who should never have been put into a position to influence policy on this scale ever.

3 annotations:

William said...

Well here is my experience.
My gas and leccy are with Scottishpower and they recently bumped my direct debit up £9 a month before the latest round of rises began.

They ignored my requests for my annual consumption in KWH so I cancelled the direct debit which naturally got their attention PDQ.

A couple of e-mails later and all I have to do is phone a Scottishpower number and apply for a tariff normally reserved for new customers only, (it is apparently illegal under EU law to reserve a tariff for new customers only but it isn't illegal to never talk about the fact that all customers new or old are eligible for all tariffs, go figure).

End result is I am paying £16 a month LESS for exactly the same fuel from exactly the same company even after the increase in Scottishpower's prices!

Get on the phone.
Demand your annual KWH consumption.
Jump on the comparison sites.
Find the cheapest.
Change whatever it takes to get the lowest price. It's all the same gas and leccy from the same sources.

Isn't hard. Isn't scary just has to be done.

James Higham said...

This is what's really galling. Paying for our fuel is one thing but paying out for this other crap is beyond the pale.

Anonymous said...

I imagine that a lot of the deaths from the cold were of the elderly people that used to go down their local for a couple of hot toddies and a smoke.
That was cheaper than staying indoors trying to heat their homes. Now though, they have to stand outside to enjoy a smoke and so they either die from the cold due to standing in the freezing cold outside a pub or stay home and can't afford the heating.
Lovely caring U.K. Grrrrr.