I SEE THAT GAS AND ELECTRICITY ARE GOING UP...AGAIN

Here’s a set of random observations:

Last November electricity prices increased by 2% and gas by 9%.

In April retirement pensions increased by 4.6%, and it was announced that pensioners under 80 would lose £50 a year (or 25%) of their winter heating allowance, and those over 80 would lose £100 (or 33%).

It was announced today that in August 2011, 9 months after that last rise, electricity will increase by 10% and gas by 19%.

Pensioners get £102.15 per week to live on; with pension credit they get £137.35.

It is estimated that people on duel tariffs (electric and gas) will face a further rise of £175 a year as a result of today's announced increases.

In Scotland, last December there were snow blizzards and snow lay for around 6 weeks, meaning that some older people couldn’t get out (thus using someone else’s heat).

It has been a cold summer so far, with daytime temperatures around 12 or 13˚C on the east coast. Many pensioners have been forced to have their heating turned on, even in June.

Last year there were around 30,000 cold weather deaths in the UK.
The United Kingdom, which is responsible for these pensions, and for the reductions in benefits (which you may remember Cameron not only promised would not happen under the Tories, but vilified Labour for suggesting that they would. “I don’t often use the word ‘liar’, but today I’m going to because they [Labour] lied”), is currently engaged in two wars costing tens of millions of pounds a day, and has increased its commitment to foreign aid by £12 billion about which they tell us we should feel proud.

Shouldn’t we feel ashamed of the horrific cold-related death toll, especially given that far colder countries do so very very much better?

A BITTER WINTER IS FORECAST

I’ve just read in the Daily Telegraph that long range weather forecasters are expecting a very cold winter with temperatures falling as low as -20C.

At the same time Ofgem is predicting that energy prices may rise by as much as 13% during the winter.

So if you put these two things together it looks like this winter will see many poor families and of course older people in real difficulties. The reduction in services forecast by many after the announcement by the Finance Secretary on the 20th of this month will also mean that pensioners will have a harder time coping. It is also a possibility that, despite a categorical denial prior to the election, winter fuel payments, or their scope, may be reduced.

It makes me sad, and ashamed to live in a country where on average somewhere between 2500 and 3000 old people die of cold related illness every winter, with a higher proportion being in Scotland due to the longer and colder winter.

Why can’t the British government do what the French government does and limit the increase in fuel prices to the inflation rate? That would at least put people’s minds at rest a little.

Private companies are only in the supply of energy business for one reason... and that is to make a profit. If they do it on the backs of pensioners, or poor people, who have to choose between eating and heating, so be it. Shareholders still expect their dividend and directors need their bonuses. Governments have to step in and make sure that their people don’t die of cold. We expect no less of them. Labour didn’t. Perhaps the Tories will

The article linked here gives some very obvious advice about getting boilers checked and insulating homes, so it may be worth a read if you can afford the expense involved in the suggestions.

Let’s hope that the weather forecasters and Ofgem are wrong... and that the government has the decency to look after the poor.