Gordo does it again !

moonrakerz

Thursday 11th Sept 2008

"Free cavity wall and loft insulation for pensioners and poor households" - Gordon Brown

"For pensioners, for people on low incomes and other benefits, the loft and cavity wall insulation is available free"
".. the offer "was very, very clear"
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn

Friday 12th Sept 2008

A Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) spokesman confirmed only pensioners over 70 and some pensioners on benefits were eligible for free cavity wall or loft insulation. (my highlighting)

1carminestocky

LOL! They really are a Govt who has reached the end of the road - bereft of ideas, common sense and, more importantly, surplus cash with which to bribe the voters with. Having said that, anyone who thinks the sun's going to shine every day once the Tories are in should get a visit to a psychiatrist booked straight away.

Dreamnine

Preferable to the bunch of ar5eholes we have at the moment.

dori2o

Lets not forget it was Thatchers Tory government that put us in this position by privatising our national energy provider and allowing these companies to raise and cut (not likely) prices as required to guarantee their shareholders extreemly large dividends, for their directors to take obscene amounts of money in bonuses, and make unnecessary £B's profits.

I'll vote for any party that agrees to Nationalise our energy services again. 1 price for everyone with no emphasis on the profiteering that we currently see.

moonrakerz

dori2o wrote: »

I'll vote for any party that agrees to Nationalise our energy services again. 1 price for everyone with no emphasis on the profiteering that we currently see.

Would you ? Can you remember what the nationalised industries were really like ? Non-profit making - LOL - just like Notwork Rail/Railcr*p I suppose ?

Ah yes ! Good old BT/Post Office - you'd like a phone line sir - not this year I'm afraid.

Been there, seen it, done it - I've taken my rose coloured specs off !

1carminestocky

I was thinking the other day about the argument about the privatised utility companies being more 'efficient' and then I wondered how many workers all the separate energy comapnies employ in total compared to how many worked for the nationalised utlities. I have of course no idea of the figures but somehow believe it would be quite revealing.

I would imagine the energy companies have to set aside many members of staff in order to facilitate those switching either to them or from them, not forgetting the sales depts employed to ring people up and lie, sorry, try and get customers to either come back or join them. More efficient?? It can't be, really. None of these staff would actually have been necessary previously and certainly no-one would have been on commission.

daveyjp

Nothing wrong with privatisation, but essential goods should have some element of state control. Helps focus the minds of the private company as they can't raise prices willy nilly.

Network Rail was formed as railtrack (truly private) couldn't deliver, so part state control was the only option (as it will be with utilties if prices continue to rise).

Giving freebies to people is part state control. Privatisation works, until it goes belly up then HM Govt has to intervene.

Dreamnine

Privatisation was fine for BT and other companies, but utilities should have stayed state-owned and maybe modernised a bit (quite a lot, in fact.)

The tories maybe weren't that great; but they've had their time in exile and now Gordon Brown should get on with what the public wants him to do ie leave office.

BYALPHAINDIA

Anybody see the Main man of Eon in the Mirror - saying he is out for the kill, To make as much money out of all of us as he can??

He Publicly wasn't afraid to say it too.

What a **** Doesn't he have a duty of care to keep prices affordable.

And let an old person who fought in WW11 die of frostbite.

They want me to get my balance of 109.00 back to 0, As some boffin told me over the phone the other week.

How can I get a 0 balance on Electric & Gas??

Do I switch it all off??

Whatever, I am not paying them more than 109.00 per month for Electric & Gas - They can go &.........

Lights out anyone.LOL

1carminestocky

This Winter will be the biggest test yet of the level of the public's disgust at the energy companies, once we get news of the first pensioner dying of hypothermia. The strange thing is, at the moment, the Govt's total ineptitude is deflecting the anger away from the energy companies a little. I think that will change over the next few months. It's going to be interesting..

DGJsaver

Privatisation wethere you like it or not is part and parcel of a capitilist society , its the regulation of those companies that benefitted from it that is nothing short of a disgrace

As cardew mentioned in another thread , the energy companies seem to have learnt how to run their companys like dialaphone and the like !!

It needs to be more transparent and understandable to the average citizen , thats where the damage is being done, the range of tariffs , high and low units , sculpting , the murkiness of it is bewildering and THAT is what needs cracking down on , NOT the measly profits that are being made (in comparison to BT or similar)

Because guys, shareholders and chief execs are ALWAYS going to be paid first !

Sort the practices out and make it easier to understand and pick your best deal , that would be a great start gordon !