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Monster Vac |
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Spotted on Smart Energy GB website - Case study: Ian Roberts, Crook, County Durham ... We had our smart meter fitted in August 2015. It was really straightforward – done within an hour. Since we both work from home, we saw that our kettle, which we used to boil up to 20 times a day, caused a clear spike on our usage graph.
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tags: Dumb, Energy, UK, GB, meters, EU, nanny state |
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Where Are They? |
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Obviously all flat maps are inaccurate in some way due to the curvature of the earth. But this distortion - plus the position of the weather satellite - should not cause town / cities to be relocated. Yet places on the BBC weather map used by Look North have recently seemed to be in some unusual positions when compared to traditional maps or indeed digital imaging. According to Google Earth the straight line distance from Doncaster to Sheffield is 28kms and from Doncaster to Leeds is 42kms; yet Sheffield looks to be further away. Leeds to Settle is 56kms, twice the distance of Doncaster to Sheffield yet the map, if anything, has it shorter. All an unavoidable effect of satellite imaging? Possibly - but one that is routinely overcome by other forecasters; including other parts of the BBC .. |
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tags: BBC, weather, map, devil in the detail |
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Could The Last To Leave Please Turn Out The Lights |
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With so many of the ruling classes wanting the UK to stay a member of the European Union it is no surprise that the leaving process will face plenty of obstacles and delays. However only a dwindling number of die-hard EU fanatics believe that leaving can be delayed forever. So one day it will actually happen. But how best to handle the actual separation is not clear to me or - I suspect - many other Grandads. But that does not prevent us making a few guesses. Step 1 should probably be for the PM to send a letter to one or more of the EU presidents saying we are leaving - as per article 50 of the EU treaty. (see right) Various factions are seeking to delay this first step in both the Commons and the Lords. Step 2 should be to suspend all payments to the EU - pending the conclusion of the leaving negotiations. This would, no doubt, trigger an unfavourable reaction from the EU. But once committed to leaving we need to hang onto all our funds if only to cover ourselves against the EU stopping or restricting the UK’s benefits and rebates. The alternative of making payments and then asking for them back later seems foolish in the extreme. Step 3 should be to repeal the European Communities Act of 1972. This step is needed to restore the priority of British laws and remove the superiority of the EU over our affairs. Being a matter that will, most likely, require a parliamentary bill it may well be blocked or delayed by the remaining, anti-independence EUrologists. And that is why this step must come after steps 1 and 2. Any delays in implementing step 3 would, therefore, not delay the actual leaving date. Once these three steps are cleared then there are dozens - or more likely hundreds / thousands - of laws, rules and regulations that need to be created, replaced, redrafted or scrapped in the UK. A process that could well become long drawn out and tedious. But employing MPs on this task may serve to remind them not to keep adding so many new laws to the statute book in the future. However the EU treaties do not terminate until terms are agreed in Brussels. This process is allowed to take a maximum of two years from the date of step 1. For any extension beyond two years there needs to be a unanimous agreement by the European Council. In February 2016 the UK civil service produced a paper outlining The process for withdrawing from the European Union. This painted a very gloomy picture; mainly highlighting their perceived problems in leaving the EU - This report may be excessively negative but it does make some valid points. Now any Grandads with a strong commercial background would probably conclude that the best strategy would be to go for the simplest terms agreed as quickly as possible. In fact terms that could be as simple as a polite goodbye with no concessions or commitments. This would put the UK in the same situation as non-European countries and non-EU members like Turkey. So trips to the rest of Europe could involve visas (and therefore for EU citizens coming to the UK) - providing the EU is really prepared to commit to the cost of extra policing at its borders that this visa checking would incur. Clearly a quick and clean separation would sweep away all the uncertainties but it would also upset those that want to hang on to EU membership for as long as possible. Notable amongst these would be the SNP. However acting decisively at the first opportunity would shorten the period of unrest; even if it brought to a head the issue of a second referendum on Scotland leaving the UK. Surely a price worth paying when considering the alternative of years of political wrangling. So when will step 1 happen? If I knew that I would be busy placing bets before saying anything publicly. But sometime while parliament is in recess is often good - so how about Christmas / New Year? That is next Christmas .. not Christmas 2017! However it could be something that none of us live long enough to see ... |
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tags: EU, leave, referendum, UK, European Union |
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Getting Ahead of Themselves |
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Any complaints that Yorkshire lags behind other parts of the UK - or indeed the world - were firmly put in their place earlier today by the BBC’s regional team. As this web page clip clearly shows the BBC’s Look North staff have already produced their news reports for events that are eleven days in the future. Somehow the BBC’s science team have managed to keep this time travel breakthrough a secret - but perhaps they will make an announcement in a future series of Doctor Who; and travel back in time to publish it. However critics have downplayed this shock development - saying that the choice of news on the BBC has been totally predictable for years. |
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tags: BBC, news, time travel |
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Progress But No Improvement |
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Back in February Grandad posted that 2016 could be the year of the smart meter for the UK. It all depended upon some new technology due mid-year.
So progress is promised real soon - but sadly there are no signs of any improvement to what the entire scheme will actually achieve. Crucially it will still add over £11,000 million to the UK’s energy administration overheads. Making it a nice little earner for the company getting the implementation contract but for no one else. This massive additional cost is predicted to save just 2% on an average household’s bills - and increase the costs for the others in order to pay for it. What seems like ages ago the Institute of Directors issued a report suggesting changes to Whitehall’s grand plan that would achieve the same result but for much less expense. In summary these were - * Exclude gas meters from the deployment – since almost all future green energy will come as electricity not gas. Leaving working gas meters unchanged will save billions. * Send the meter readings to customers’ existing phones, tablets or PCs - rather than requiring additional, and relatively expensive, dedicated displays. * Exclude tower block customers from the scheme – since the proposed system will struggle to cope with dense high-rise dwellings. * Limit the smart meter roll-out to homes with high energy usage since they could reduce their consumption the most – as is planned for smart meters in Germany. * Make smart meters available at cost to those customers that want them - rather than being subsidised by everyone through increased energy charges. The current plans will hit the poorest / most careful customers the hardest. Whether the new faces in Government will take their brief window of opportunity to re-evaluate smart meters (or at least check their basic financial assumptions) is unclear. But it does seem that there are too many expensive projects around and too few sources of taxation to come anywhere close to paying for them - even before Brexit entered the equation. |
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tags: energy, power, UK, EU, smart, meters, high cost, low gain |
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In The Land That Time Forgot |
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While most of our elected representatives have been on family holidays or important overseas study tours a few have been busy jostling for leadership of the Labour Party.
But looking at the two candidates it is hard to imagine either of them ever being put in a position to implement any of their declared policies. One seemingly out of touch with anything outside his dogmatic bubble throughout the last forty years. [Who is Anton Deck? Was something on in Rio?] While the other is apparently unaware that it was strongly Labour constituencies - including his own - that were most in favour of Brexit and who is now calling for delays and a second referendum. So once this contest is over the Labour Party will have gained many more activist members - but in Parliament it will still be lacking the influence its numbers should command. So then we are left hoping that the Conservative Party takes decisions that meet the voters’ mandate and protect the nation’s interests; while resisting the vested interests of lobbyists with deep pockets. But that may be a little too much to hope for ... |
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tags: UK, politics, democracy, vote, party |
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Meme of the Day |
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tags: EU, Europe, European, Union, Vote, Leave, Remain, Scotland, Separation |
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Not So New |
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Over the past few weeks some Grandads have reported spotting a newspaper on sale that brought back memories from twenty or more years ago.
Now this first European did get good initial support; reaching a circulation of over 200,000 by early 1991. But sales started to slide as interest in matters across the Channel faded. Then by the end of that year Maxwell was dead and his empire in tatters. New owners took it on-board in 1992 but by December 1996 it had accumulated reported losses of £50m. It struggled on until December 1998 when its last issue carried the ironic front page leader - Europe aims to be superpower of the 21st century. The first time around many who are now Grandads thought that One money for Europe was a good idea, along with customs-free travel, unrestricted trade and common standards. But seeing how a federalist clique has taken the reigns of political power since then has changed enough minds for them now to be in the 52% majority. It will be interesting to see how long the New European survives beyond the ripples from its zeitgeist moment. But it seems unlikely to attract much in the way of subscriptions from those with memories of that, much more appealing, earlier European dream. |
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tags: EU, Europa, European, Union, Leave, newspaper, history repeats |
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What Could Possibly Go Wrong? |
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Trust me. Neither me nor my French and Chinese colleagues have ever considered putting personal gain before public service and Britain’s best strategic interests. These stupid people are making all sorts of ridiculous claims - such as the company is in a very precarious financial situation with €37 billion of debt. This figure may be correct but the company has the total support of the French Government. And, yes, the fall in energy prices has reduced our revenues - but luckily for our bonuses there are no falls in prices on this one. We got the naive customer to agree a high fixed price contract before the market tanked. Sure the company will be spending €50 billion upgrading its old reactors- but with Chinese cash and smart meters in UK homes the money will be rolling in. In fact the biggest problem with UK government’s delay in signing the nuclear power deal is that I have had to put my yacht order on hold and may now miss that extended winter break in the Caribbean. It’s just so inconvenient ... |
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tags: Hinkley, Power, Powerless, Generation, France, China, Nuclear, Big ticket |
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Meme of the Day |
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tags: EU, Europa, European, Union, Leave It, President, Failure, Goodbye |
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News Selections |
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It’s summer - the schools are closed, families are on holiday, politics is off the boil, artists and critics are in Edinburgh and, this year, the top sports personalities and their followers are in Rio. All of this is reflected in the stories that made it through the selection process and into the mass media this week. From today, for example, we have the BBC handling multiple, live Olympic sports streams from Rio (on a four hour time difference) while also covering the hundreds of events that make up the ever-growing Edinburgh Arts Festival. And it is hard to work out if the BBC sports reporter from the Look North studios is in Rio because there is a shortage of BBC staff available for Brazil - or because money is still no object for the corporation.
At least the Daily Express maintained a degree of normality by today publishing yet another one of its wildly-unscientific weather forecasts ... |
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tags: Radio, TV, news, manipulation, selection, repeat |
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Meme of the Day |
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tags: Radio, TV, news, manipulation, selection, repeat, Laugh-In, 1960s |
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31-Jul-2016 |
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RefFest 2017 |
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With Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, still stating that another vote on Scottish independence is highly likely the team behind an annual referendum festival has been encouraged to press ahead.
But calls for an IndyRef2 - as soon as 2017 - have not gone away. Only yesterday several thousand pro-independence marchers - organised by the All Under One Banner group - demonstrated their support in Glasgow. So a RefFest there in May next year looks to have some guaranteed support. However the festival organisers have yet to find any firm financial backers. And plans for a national song contest and satellite RefFests for supporters outside Scotland are on hold. |
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tags: referendum, vote, annual, event, UK, Scotland |
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Meme of the Day |
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tags: EU, Europe, European, Union, Vote, Leave, Remain, Scotland, Separation |
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Anti-Democracy Fifth Columns |
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The terrible events in Nice on Thursday night caused more feelings of shock and sadness here - just like the events in Paris did only a few months ago. And, as before, the best memorial to the victims must be to stop it happening again.
To repeat Grandad’s posting from November 2015 - From now on we should only accept migrants on our terms. And only those citizens, residents or potential residents who are prepared to continue with, or convert to, our common values and norms should stay. Certainly we need no one with little gratitude for our shelter or who is contemptuous of our stupidity for giving aid to those who hate us. Using English, treating men and women as equals and obeying our laws would be a good start. Hardly unreasonable requirements for living here - yet ones it seems that many object to. But why? Look at it from the opposite view - why would anyone want to live in or move to a country if the people there had nothing in common? Very few Brits would even consider migration to, say, Zimbabwe or Azerbaijan. Why then move from a different culture to the British one? Is there nowhere with a compatible culture that is safe? Most of the British empire disappeared because the people wanted independence and their own way of life. Now millions seem to want to leave their independent nations and move to Britain. Have the former colonies really declined so much since the days of empire? The time has come to dump all forms of multiculturalism as desirable objectives - locking them away in the box of failed utopias never to be let out again. Allegiance to his country is the only culture that any patriot needs. As long as these atrocities generate only hashtags and candles our bad situation will only get worse. |
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tags: migration, culture clash, fatal consequences, enemy within |
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Scotland Plans Annual RefFest |
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In response to the large scale public involvement generated by IndyRef 2014 and EuroRef 2016 plans are being prepared for Scotland to have a national referendum festival as a regular fixture in its cultural calendar.
Their provisional festival timetable calls for IndyRef2 to be held in Glasgow during May 2017 with EuroRef2 planned for Edinburgh during May 2018. The subject for the 2019 referendum is much less clear at this stage but the sale of Shetland to Norway, Orkney to Iceland and the Restoration of the Kingdom of Fife are the most likely contenders. However the organisers have admitted that they will need much more funding before they can take their plans any further. They hope to supplement their current crowd-funding efforts with grants from Tourism Scotland, loans from Deutschland Uber Alles and sales of whiskey to the EU Commission. |
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tags: referendum, vote, annual, event, UK, Scotland, EU |
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1-Jul-2016 |
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100 Years On |
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tags: Europe, Great, War, Battle, Somme, 1916, Anniversary |
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Dear Smart Energy Marketing Team - Are really sure about that 22 kilowatt figure? Domestic power points normally have no higher than 30 amp rating - so have an absolute maximum of 7.2 kilowatt (or 7,200 watts) for powering anything. But then being energy experts you would know that already.
Well mid-year as come and gone but there are signs that next month could actually see the delivery of the essential glue for this massive project - the data network. This is the means by which energy companies link to each other and their customers. The latest prediction is that the network will be operational by the end of September. However the men from the ministry were still predicting a mid-August start right up to ... mid-August.
A contest that seems to have become a contest between old labour and even-older labour policies. In fact one of the few modern elements has been the repeat of Ed Milliband’s ill-fated strap line - Your Next Prime Minister. Otherwise it was the familiar messages about renationalisation, stopping privatisation and spending money that we don’t have.
The European was launched by Robert Maxwell in May 1990 with the aim of being the paper for supporters of the integration of Europe. Much the same aim as The New European except now the language used is much more cosmopolitan - a pop-up newspaper for a zeitgeist moment in British political and social history ... with an enthusiasm and love for Europe ... that gives voice to the values of the 48%.
These stories that our proposed nuclear power plant is unproved, vastly over-priced and will never reach its claimed capacity are just scare stories put out by aging hippies with scrambled brains.
In politics time is ticking away since the surprise Brexit vote and it looks like August will pass without any meaningful progress. That could be a good sign that more planning is taking place. However it could also mean that we are simply seeing a political replay of the Battle of the Somme. With the opposing sides making no headway for month after month while both suffering massive losses. Others say this is just a phoney war - a lull before the real conflict where nothing much changes. Either way it seems that the 
When the plan was announced some four weeks ago many thought that it was simply a spontaneous reaction against the UK-wide vote to leave the European Union. One that would rapidly fade after the shock result sank in.
After the present three days of mourning European politicians need to act on a wide range of reforms. Ones aimed at strengthening social cohesion and protecting free speech while giving clear priorities to the police and stopping the abuses of the legal system. We cannot continue with a justice system that allows illegal acts to go unpunished or convicted criminals to claim special treatment just because they are from another country - no matter how bad that country might be.
A spokesperson said .. The increase in political activity and public meetings that a referendum brings has major financial spin-offs and benefits in many areas; with flag sales, beer sales and banner printing services showing particularly large increases. The introduction of our annual Referendum Festival (RefFest) could give Scotland the same level of benefits as the Oktoberfest brings not just to Munich but to the whole of Bavaria.
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FOOTNOTES |
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1. We don’t claim copyright on any of this stuff. We won’t hassle you if you reuse it. If you don’t like it here then just move on. We don’t use cookies because we never track your actions. Some of this stuff may link to other sites. What they do is their responsibility. Some links promise to pay us for any traffic generated but the amounts are peanuts at best. |
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2. We haven’t been mis-sold any financial services. We don’t want to make any legal claims against anyone. We don’t want to help you move your offshore funds. We don’t have parcels that could not be delivered. We do have the best deals on utilities. Our web page rankings are not a problem ... |
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