Are The Consumers Controlling The Energy Prices?
This article from Real Business entitled ‘Big 6’ Energy Companies To Lose Dominance in 2019 caught my eye. Here’s the first paragraph.
The UK’s ‘big six’ energy companies are losing customers to their smaller rivals at such a rate that they will control less than 50 per cent of the residential market in 2019, according to UKPower.co.uk.
So perhaps savvy comsumers and the Internet are actually in control these days?
I do wonder whether Miliband’s statement that he would freeze energy companies has actually got the Great British Public to think deeply about their energy use and they have seen they can save money by switching to a smaller supplier.
And from my own experience, once you’ve switched once, you realise that it’s not a painful process, so if it doesn’t work out, switching again will not be a problem.
Après Bob, Le Déluge
It would seem that the successors to Bob Crow at RMT are out to inflict more pain on Londoners, than Bob Crow ever did, with five days of strikes in the next few weeks, as reported here on the BBC.
But Londoners will in the main survive and get on with their business, just as they did when Adolf gave the city, quite a few years of much more dangerous strikes.
As someone, who uses the Underground and Overground a lot, I pass by ticket offices quite a bit. Many are crowded with long queues at the ticket machines. Only a few stations seem to have long queues at the actual ticket offices themselves.
So to cure the problems of the queues at the ticket machines, Transport for London will introduce more and better machines at stations.
The ability to be able to use a contactless bank card as a ticket as well as Oyster, which is already happening and is supposedly working well on buses, will also contribute to a reduction of those needing the ticket offices.
If the machines and contactless cards do cut all the queues, then we could have have the situation of fully-manned ticket offices, where staff see hardly any customers at all.
Surely, the RMT should be stopping the installation of more ticket machines and the using of contactless bank cards as tickets, if they wanted to stop the closure of ticket offices.
Where else will this worrying new militancy turn up?
Was This What Really Annoyed The Board At The Co-op?
Prufrock in The Sunday Times looks into the trouble at the Co-op and has this interesting paragraph.
Apparently, certain senior members of the Co-op movement first decided Sutherland had to be stopped after he cut a long-standing entitlement to first class travel for the 20 board members, whose number includes a farmer, a university lecturer and a nurse. Free travel is a perk that disappeared years ago from all but the most lavish plc boards.
So I conclude that to really live well as a socialist, it has to be at the expense of others.
The Punishment Of Nigel Evans
The Times is reporting that Nigel Evans faces financial ruin because of the £100,000 he spent paying for his defence on serious sexual assault and rape charges.
Surely, as the Court found him not guilty, his costs should be met from public funds.
I know it was a civil case, but I was once sued by a veracious litigant and defending the action cost me ten grand. I could afford the legal costs at the time, but how many other people are found innocent or win their case and are seriously out of pocket?
It is an unfairness that should be removed from our legal system.
The Pollution Didn’t Seem To Be Too Bad!
To check on the forecast pollution, I took some pictures this morning and early afternoon.
I started by taking a 56 bus, which is one of the Dalston omnibuses, to St. Paul’s, where I mounted on One New Change.
I then took the DLR from Bank to Royal Victoria, from where I took the cable car to North Greenwich.
I finished the journey by taking the Underground to Chalk Farm from where I walked to the top of Primrose Hill.
I also found this page on the DEFRA web site, which gives a pollution forecast.
Sense On Farage Versus Clegg
I didn’t watch the debate last night, as I was watching the football and trying to make sense of my tiger photos.
This morning, I’ve read the report in The Times and especially the comments from readers. The latter are probably summed up by this one.
Good strategy of Tories and Labour to keep out of this playground spat.
Farage looks like (is) a man offering simple solutions to complex problems, which is appealing in a protest vote like the Euro elections, but he has nothing to say about actually running the country as potential PM, so will not get far in a GE when people really are paying attention and are worried about jobs, health, education, etc.
Clegg used it as an attempt (failed) to look statesman-like, but few have his appetite for more Europe, and even he didn’t seem convinced by his own arguments. He is a man whose time in the limelight has been and gone. Not many people will remember his name in a decade.
So it might well be that most people actually saw Farage versus Clegg as entertainment or perhaps a dangerous freak show.
Payments To Mobile Phone
They have just fully announced, that you’ll soon be able to send payments to a mobile phone number. The system is called Paym.
My bank, Nationwide, won’t be bringing it in until next year, but I’m not sure about if I would use the system.
For instance, will these points be covered.
1. At times, I use a simple mobile phone, like one of my Nokia 6310i.
Can you just send money using a simple text?
If you can it would enable those who don’t want a smart phone to use the system.
It would also mean that a stolen phone might lead secrets to fraudsters.
2. Can you send payments from an on-line account to a mobile number enabled account?
3. Could I send money to a charity and get Gift Aid added?
Knowing the two words banks and innovation rartely appear in the same senytence, I suspect the system will be designed like a colander.
Royal Tunbridge Wells Is Disgusted At No Waitrose
The |Times describes in a story today, how Tunbridge Wells is disgusted at the lack of a Waitrose.
It gives a whole new meaning to Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.
It is one of those stories that could be appropriate for today.
Farage Is A Putin Admirer
According to this story in The Independent, Nigel Farage is an admirer of President Putin. Here’s the first paragraph.
Nigel Farage has named Vladimir Putin as the world leader he most admires. He praised the Russian president’s skills as an “operator”, citing his “brilliant” handling of the civil war in Syria.
I can hear the loud noise as many of those who died years ago, who felt that Stalin was as dangerous as Hitler, are spinning in their graves in unison. My father, who was very much against dictators of all political persuasions, is calling me through the genes.
The Best Diplomatic Illness
It is being reported that because of illness to one of the Court staff, the Pistorius trial will be delayed until next Monday.
Hooray for him or her!
Any TV or radio station, that vowed to be a Pistorius-free zone, would get my eyes or ears!
It is not news, it’s a tragedy for all involved.
The Anonymous Widower 