Ofgem Go 'Victim Blaming'.
The Division Belles – Caroline and Hazel Blears demonstrate energy wasting to MPs. Some three weeks ago, Ofgem decided to follow the lead of Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, Caroline Flint MP, and save you money.
So far so good.
Ms Flint went down this road back last September when she was busy telling the Labour Party conference in her trademark ‘I shall be asking questions later, children’ style the promises she would be making (if elected, naturally) to stop your expensive heating from escaping your house. It’s what we minions call ‘insulation’. Politicians can make the concept expand to several paragraphs.
They all amount to saving money.
It is not hard to visualise the wide eyed young chap in Ofgem thinking ‘we could help here’ – and coming up with some money saving tips. What could go wrong?
Ofgem aren’t politicians – they don’t understand the difference between keywords. You see Ms Flint was ‘saving energy’, and the dimmest (a crowded field admittedly) Labour Conference delegate knows that saving energy is a good thing, part of the fight against global warming in these snow shrouded shores.
Whereas ‘saving money’ is to imply that the poor are somehow responsible for their plight; nay it is ‘victim blaming’, implying that those who can’t pay their lecky bill are somehow responsible for their inability to pay, and suggesting that they take sandwiches to work instead of paying ‘Pret a Calorie’ to make them is demeaning…
Labour’s MP Caroline Flint was critical of the new Ofgem advice, telling the Daily Mirror: “This is patronising rubbish. People don’t need lecturing on taking a packed lunch to work, jogging or getting a second-hand mobile.
The three week old sandwich of ‘offensive money saving tips’ was dug out of the box today because Ofgem has failed to roundly condemn the energy companies for not passing on the full (allegedly) 20% cut in wholesale oil prices.
Could that be anything to do with Ms Flint’s other previous announcement? The one where she said that under a Labour government energy companies wouldn’t be allowed to pass on increases in price, only cuts?
“The next Labour government is committed to making big changes in our energy market: freezing energy prices until 2017 so that bills can fall but not rise, and giving the regulator the power to force energy companies to cut their prices when wholesale costs fall to all of their customers.”
Thus insuring that any responsible energy company held back part of any cut in price as a bolster against future increases in price that they would be forbidden to pass on?
After Andrew Neil’s last devastating demolition of Ms Flint, I look forward to him tackling her on this one..
- robbo
February 3, 2015 at 10:43 am -
A friend of mine is meter reader, and he told me a large percentage of poor people fiddle the electric meter, all you need is a stout length
of insulated wire and then you bypass the meter,Also you can buy security tags and pliers on ebay,Fast food outlets have their gas meter
modified by grinding teeth off the cogs, depending on how many teeth you can remove your bill will go down accordingly,How about 90%
Energy supply companies ignore private individuals because you cant get blood out of a stone,
Smart meters set a sort of alarm off if you tamper with them, but theres so many false alarms they ignore them,My friend receives a bonus if he can catch fast food outlet fiddlers, but he says nobody is interested in fraud!- Mudplugger
February 3, 2015 at 11:33 am -
Back in the days of coin-meters, most of the fiddles were carried out by the meter-men themselves – in one case of my knowledge, they were even paying their depot supervisor a ‘commission’ of 10% of their ‘take’, thus keeping him in the loop. Went on for years before one meter-man’s ex-wife grassed them all up – the price of a scorned woman.
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 3, 2015 at 1:15 pm -
” the price of a scorned woman.”
Of all the men I have known who have ‘done time’, I think every single one, and there have been too many for me to count, was put in prison by his wife/girlfriend/Mistress. Either because she felt scorned or because she gossiped or because the nice police man persuaded her she was really ‘helping’ her man by getting him locked up for a few years.
It is accepted wisdom among the more professional criminal classes that the police would still be trying to catch Highwaymen on horseback if it weren’t for ‘her indoors’.
- The Blocked Dwarf
- Peter Raite
February 3, 2015 at 3:34 pm -
Takeaway operators greedy and dumb enough to reduce their energy bills by 90% might as well install a massive flashing neon sign saying “I AM FIDDLING THE LECKY!” I reckon even the dimwits at Npower would be able to spot such anomalously low usage.
- Mudplugger
February 3, 2015 at 4:01 pm -
You’ve spotted those dimwits at Npower too…..
They recently sent me a bill, with a very pretty chart telling me that my electricity consumption for the same period last year was a big, fat zero. I then asked them to give me all the money back they’d charged me for that same period when I had apparently consumed none of it, and they became remarkable reluctant to pay up. Tossers.
- Mudplugger
- Mudplugger
- The Blocked Dwarf
February 3, 2015 at 10:57 am -
“People don’t need lecturing on taking a packed lunch to work, jogging or getting a second-hand mobile.”
I somehow doubt Ofgen told people how they could really save money ie buying their smokes abroad/shredding their own tobacco, brewing their own beer and wine, getting rid of their TV and licence and learning what iplayer and Piratebay are.
And on the subject of Pret A Tentious …which perverted, degraded, Sicko thought up putting lettuce and tomato in a perfectly good bacon sandwich?
- windsock
February 3, 2015 at 12:04 pm -
Americans. They call it a BLT. They put it in hamburgers to. I was astonished the first time I went to America in 1978 – we only had Wimpy in my home town. No lettuce. no tomato. Unless that was our main meal of salad. Sometimes it had a hard boiled egg too (the salad, not the burger).
- windsock
- Moor Larkin
February 3, 2015 at 11:37 am -
I daresay they are reared on Churchillian wisdom: “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
- Duncan Disorderly
February 3, 2015 at 11:47 am -
The energy market is a nonsense. The people who can most benefit from lower prices (the poor and the elderly) are the people least capable of making a sensible switch to another supplier, by putting their details into a comparison site. Thus, they get ripped off with the Standard Tariff. Only weirdos like me keep records of their usage anyway, which is what people need to have accurate details to hand.
I don’t know how the price freeze to 2017 would work – would it only be the Standard Tariff it applies to, or an average (a weighted one?) of all tariffs available, or something? What if gas power rises in price so much that prices have to rise to prevent major bankruptcies, disruption or investment drought in energy provision? It’s not likely, but these are things that have to be worked out ahead of time.
- jS
February 3, 2015 at 12:58 pm -
The poor are also the ones less likely to benefit from the climate change scam.
They can’t afford the solar panels or have the land to house wind turbines to rake in the subsidy. They live in the poor quality housing least able to be properly insulated and can’t afford to replace blown double glazing. They are more likely to live in rented accommodation where the owner won’t spend a penny on insulation because they aren’t paying the fuel bills. They aren’t likely to be able afford the most energy-saving appliances… the list goes on.It’s no accident that the loudest proponents of policies leading to expensive fuel are the ones most able to afford to take advantage.
- AdrianS
February 3, 2015 at 1:40 pm -
About right, I can’t afford an electric car. If they bring road pricing in that will be terrible for those on low incomes
- AdrianS
- jS
- windsock
February 3, 2015 at 12:02 pm -
“The next Labour government is committed to making big changes in our energy market: freezing energy prices until 2017 so that bills can fall but not rise, and giving the regulator the power to force energy companies to cut their prices when wholesale costs fall to all of their customers.”
Thus insuring that any responsible energy company held back part of any cut in price as a bolster against future increases in price that they would be forbidden to pass on?”
You make the perfect argument for why parties don’t include their real proposals in their manifestos. Honesty is a tool that will be used against them. Not unless they are offering bribes, of course.
- Moor Larkin
February 3, 2015 at 12:17 pm -
It doesn’t make any difference what they say anyway. Labour voters vote Labour. Conservatives vote Tory. The only way to break the deadlock is to invent a new gang – UKIP. The irony of all of this is that the Liberals came up with the only working-class benefit and that was to strip the low-paid more and more out of taxation with their £10k promise. They have been universally reviled by every gang since. Give “the people” what they want? The people cannot handle the truth and the politicians know that so they keep on lying. “We” get what “we” deserve.
- Not Long Now
February 3, 2015 at 12:28 pm -
* “We” get what “we” deserve.*
With great respect Moor, bollox. I might get what some other freeloading mindless tosser deserves, but I have never, ever voted for the corrupt bunch of bastards that actually ended up in power. Which is why I have decided to stop wasting my time voting.
At least that way I can console myself that I didn’t actually have a hand in the lunacy that inevitably follows every election; it’s called government.
- Moor Larkin
February 3, 2015 at 12:37 pm -
All I heard for about thirty years was that the parties should “get together” and then when two of them did, they were condem-ed as the worst government in history… Roll on May…
- AdrianS
February 3, 2015 at 1:45 pm -
My old 85 year old mum put it likes this
The conservatives are honest rogues
The labour are rogues
The lib dems are queer rogues
Ukip are likeable rogues
The Greens are nimby rogues- Moor Larkin
February 3, 2015 at 2:30 pm -
Maybe we should just give them turns eaches and take all the heat out of the politicking.
Five years to prove that anything they can do, they can do better…
Five years. That’s all they’ve got…
Five years. What a surprise!
Five years. Stuck on their eyes. - The Blocked Dwarf
February 3, 2015 at 3:33 pm -
or as my Grandmama (never ‘Nan’) put it : “they are all POLITICIANS and all tarred with the same brush” (mind you,Granny spoke an RP that rhymed ‘house’ with ‘mice’ and Politician with ‘thieving adulterous toerag and no better than he should’..)
- Mudplugger
February 3, 2015 at 3:55 pm -
As my wise old dad advised,
“Don’t vote for those who’ll do you the most good, because none of them will do you any good – vote for those who will do you the least harm”.
- Mudplugger
- Moor Larkin
- AdrianS
- Moor Larkin
- Not Long Now
- Not Long Now
February 3, 2015 at 12:21 pm -
*You make the perfect argument for why parties don’t include their real proposals in their manifestos. Honesty is a tool that will be used against them.*
Maybe that is because their ideas are really stupid ones, or rather, ones that will screw everyone but themselves because, they have all of their expenses paid for by the dumb suckers who voted for them.
- Not Long Now
February 3, 2015 at 2:15 pm -
*…. by the dumb suckers who voted for them.*
I should have added , “as well as by the dumb suckers who didn’t vote for them.”
- Not Long Now
- Moor Larkin
- Michael Massey
February 3, 2015 at 3:57 pm -
Caroline Flint is just appalling. The Guardian has published a few pieces from her in her capacity as Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary which amply demonstrated that her understanding of both areas is shallow to say the least and limited to parotting a few sound bites over and over again.
Mind you Tristram Hunt is no better on education nor is Andy Burnham on the NHS even though he should have some understanding having been Sec of State but never seems to get beyond scaremongering and simple lies.
- Mudplugger
February 3, 2015 at 4:06 pm -
So you’ve spotted the common theme to all of Little Ed’s ‘Shallow Cabinet’. And even without reference to the fiscal genius Ed Balls or the elfin Yvette Cooper – that’s impressive.
- Cascadian
February 3, 2015 at 5:12 pm -
There seems to be an adequate body of evidence to conclude that voting for any politician aged less than fifty who has acquired a degree at a university (not necessarily a British university) is unsuitable for election.
That does not explain outliers like the Harperson but common sense should prevail in such cases.
Others here believe not voting sends a message, I entirely disagree with that viewpoint. Spoil the ballot if you must, never avoid your duty of voting.
- Not Long Now
February 3, 2015 at 5:30 pm -
*Spoil the ballot if you must, never avoid your duty of voting.*
Your comment presupposes that there is *a duty of voting*. Not so. The only *duty* I have is to be a good citizen. That does not include indulging in a fixed game to satisfy the ego’s of a bunch of corrupt self serving individuals who only want enough people to vote to allow them to claim a *mandate*.
Beside which I’ve played the *duty* bit for enough decades to recognize self serving nonsense when I see it. If our glorious political class were serious about *duty* they would be falling over themselves to include a *none of the above* box on the ballot. Unless I’ve missed it, they haven’t.
- Cascadian
February 3, 2015 at 8:28 pm -
We will have to agree to disagree, I actually believe there is a civic duty to inform oneself and vote.
Problems inherent in the system are:
1. bribery of large sections of the population by government programmes
2. people failing to inform themselves adequately.
3. excessive numbers of public employees beholden to the governmentI am pretty cynical about the process, but believe you overstate the issue by saying that voting “only serves to satisfy the ego’s of a bunch of corrupt self serving individuals”. Sure some of them are self-serving, eventually most seem to succumb to the perquisites and once ensconced most seem to regard the job not as service to the the taxpayer but as a sinecure. If electors see that, it is obviously time to vote them out, declining to vote will never clean out the corrupt, time-servers and ill-informed.
- Not Long Now
February 4, 2015 at 10:01 am -
*If electors see that, it is obviously time to vote them out, declining to vote will never clean out the corrupt, time-servers and ill-informed.*
As you say, we shall have to agree to disagree. But coupling ‘informing oneself’ with the duty to vote suggest those who don’t vote, fail to inform themselves, I have to say again, not so.
But regardless of any of this, it isn’t possible to vote people out, you have to vote them in and that brings us full circle back to *none of the above*.
I see it like this: any one wishing to be a politician is very probably psychologically unfit for the role. Any one fitting for the role is unlikely to want to do it.
- Not Long Now
- Cascadian
- Not Long Now
- Mudplugger
- Carol42
February 3, 2015 at 4:06 pm -
I just don’t know what to do any more, just about everything in our current crop of politicians disgusts me. They seem to have little or no understanding of anything. Maybe they were always that bad and we just didn’t know about it but the rise of professional politicians has made things worse. For the first time ever I might give voting a miss or vote UKIP if only to shake things up. No wonder people are turning to minority parties in protest.
- JimS
February 3, 2015 at 4:38 pm -
What about Ofgem’s role in this?
To my mind the sole purpose of all these ‘Of’ lot is to remove any responsibility that Secretaries of State used to have so now they can’t be blamed for anything. The regulator, being a civil servant, isn’t held to account either so it is a win-win for the status quo.
Ofgem is responsible for bringing back the standing charge, something that makes it very hard to compare tariffs. It is like being told that The Red Lion only charges 10 p per pint while the Green Man charges £5, it is only when the bill arrives that you discover that the Red Lion has a £6 entry charge while the Green Man’s is 10p.
I don’t think ANY of these regulators are worth their pay. They all just sit around producing reports, usually finding that really we have all been complaining about nothing.
Ofcom is probably the worst. They regulate communications apparently but have no control over all the junk and scam calls that are most phone users greatest concern.
What is needed is for someone like the BSI or Which to produce standard packages for energy, communications and insurance, then we would have a market place that works and all these ‘offices’ can off-off.
- Moor Larkin
February 3, 2015 at 4:53 pm -
Ofgem? Did it used to be Ofgen? Or do I just have trouble with mnemonics?
- JimS
February 3, 2015 at 10:33 pm -
Ofgem – Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, formed from OFFER, Office of Electricity Regulation and Ofgas, Office of Gas Supply or the ‘air gap’ between the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and us but a direct channel between the EU Commission and the UK energy suppliers.
- Joe Public
February 4, 2015 at 11:06 pm -
Isn’t it ironic that the monopoly that is Ofgem criticise ‘The Big Six’ for ‘lack of competition’?
- Joe Public
- JimS
- Moor Larkin
- Not Long Now
February 3, 2015 at 5:39 pm -
An open apology to all and anyone noticing that ‘Not Long Now’ is more than a little cynical bordering on testy today. I seem to be having a bad hair day. No excuses except that it appears to be the Political Class and discussions of, that excites the condition.
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