Energy news in general

JKenH

EssexHebridean said:

wrf12345 said:

"The government are now planning on adding more to our bills to pay for those who refuse to pay, great."
If they put the standing charge up again I will be joining those who don't pay, as I have done for water.

Tell me, do you see others behaving poorly and decide to follow their example in other situations, too? Perhaps you see someone driving like a tool on the motorway, and so crank things up to 95mph and start undertaking? Perhaps you don't bother paying for your groceries in the supermarket, because after all, other people shoplift, so why should YOU pay? 

I will never understand why some folk consider it appropriate to aim for the behaviour standards of the lowest - rather than the highest? 

You will no doubt be surprised then at current public attitudes to shoplifting (per Google)

The percentage of people sympathetic to shoplifting varies significantly depending on the circumstances, with a YouGov poll revealing that a large portion of the population is sympathetic to certain forms of theft

. The degree of empathy is most strongly influenced by the motive for the theft, such as desperation due to poverty. 

Key findings from a YouGov poll in October 2024 of UK adults: 

• Starving for food: 51% of the public felt it could sometimes be acceptable to shoplift food if a person was starving.
• Cannot afford food: The percentage fell slightly to 40% when the reason was simply being unable to afford food.
• Cannot afford baby products: 44% of Britons found it potentially acceptable for a parent to shoplift baby products if they could not afford them.
• Cannot afford toiletries: For toiletries, 30% viewed shoplifting as acceptable if a person could not afford them.
• Cannot afford clothes: This figure dropped to 20% when the item was clothing.
• Stealing from large companies: About one in five people (19%) believed it could be acceptable to steal from a large company.
• Stealing from small companies: Sympathy plummeted to just 3% for stealing from a small company. 

It’s no surprise therefore that some people may think that it’s ok not to pay bills in certain circumstances. There are significant differences in attitude depending on age group and political leaning but perhaps it’s best not to go there.

EssexHebridean

I'm not surprised, as such, and those figures are also rather skewed - the poster who has casually announced that he will just allow others to pick up the tab for his energy use has repeatedly explained that he absolutely CAN afford to pay for these things, he's simply choosing not to on some form of "principle". If he was genuinely in a position where he had to choose between feeding himself or his children, or paying energy bills, I think an awful lot of us would say that as a short term solution, of course buying the food should take priority, but that's not the case, is it. He's simply taking the decision that he's not going to pay - and therefore by default, that others can pick up the tab for his energy (and, apparently, water) use. 

I took part in that poll, by the way - as I suspect did a lot of others on here! 

As for your final paragraph, I suspect you are correct - on all counts!