LATEST MOAN FROM YOU AND ME - 2022

Well I obviously do see your point.
But should I get cheaper electric because there is a wind farm just off the coast and on Romney Marsh. I'm not holding my breath.

 

@noisette47 I think the only 'solution' is to be a tad more tolerant and allow everyone to express their opinions freely, but partisanship from the social media platforms makes that incredibly difficult because of censorship of opposing viewpoints. I think a huge part of the problem is that the vast majority of the population (including myself) feel politically homeless. I've never voted for the Tories in recent years, I simply vote against Labour because I hate everything they represent nowadays. But I also despite most of what the Tories represent, so yeah, there's no winning!

Nick

 

Are we talking press or media?
IMO, people buy and read newspapers that apply to their own opinion, they always have done.
Nobody buys a newspaper that is left wing if they are right thinking and vice versa.

As to democracy, what is that, we live in a country where often the party with less than half the votes wins.
And really once you divide all the candidates into parties it makes a joke of the idea you vote for the person and not the party.

Ask people how they will vote and they will name a party not a candidate, in most cases.
And in general elections they vote for a party leader, not the unknown standing in their area.

 

My point was - why should those that live in Scotland pay more for their electricity than the rest of the country. If the national grid supplies the whole of Britain then the cost/rate of that supply should be the same for everyone. If Sturgeon was to get her way with independence, which I very much doubt, then it would be worthwhile expanding the grid here and being self sufficient.

 

I assume distribution costs are much higher bearing in mind the remoteness of some of the places.
Probably cabling covering long distances just to supply half a dozen properties.

Costs seem to be based on postcode, its often more expensive for some things down here than it is up north, probably because we are all stinking rich down here.

 

I don't think remoteness comes into it Pete. Electricity prices are high throughout Scotland. Cabling shouldn't make a difference either, we don't get charged more here for telephone cables and supply of phone line, internet etc. Many of those 'half a dozen properties' scattered here and there are off grid.

 

Any help @Sheal .
Scotland's north-south divide in energy costs

This equates to around £100 extra expense on distribution costs alone.

These costs would be even higher if it was not for a £50m subsidy paid for by all energy consumers to reduce the charges for transporting the power long distances.

 

Yes, I'm aware of the stark difference in energy costs Pete. I can't remember my own cost offhand and it means delving into paperwork not to hand at the moment.

What did surprise me in the link, is that Avoch (pronounced Och) on the Black Isle has no gas supply. We lived on the Isle temporarily while house hunting and it's only minutes away from Inverness.

With people here already suffering fuel poverty it doesn't bode well if the governments, both English and Scottish get their way and ban fossil fuels, although I don't think it will happen. I don't have a mains gas supply here so am dependent on oil for heating, which despite what has been stated is quite a bit cheaper than gas.

 

The fact that so much money is spent on it tells us something: political parties now spend huge budgets on ensuring certain stories get specific prominence in specific places. It's worth it because the impacts are now immediately measureable and there is a wohole industry dedicated to doing so. I find it depressing how easily we are manipulated...back to those sweet peas.

 

Perhaps if (as has happened here) enough people get disillusioned and simply refuse to vote, the powers-that-be will have to take notice? But I'm not holding my breath Say what you like about the French, but ordinary people here are more willing to take to the streets and make their dissatisfaction known. I'm not talking about the thugs and vandals that climbed onto the Gilet Jaune bandwagon....the Press and media very neatly imprinted their behaviour on the public consciousness as being typical of the GJs, which it wasn't. They were just ordinary people who'd had enough of rapacious politicians taking the pee. There's got to be some form of 'brake' on those in power, and it's obvious that voting isn't sufficient.

 

I saw someone quite close to me @pete start reading his missus' DM each day, when he retired. Up to that he'd been an intelligent, considerate fella - broad and liberally minded. Discussing with him was always challenging and I enjoyed it. It took about a year before he was ranting about the usual range of issues - on which subjects he knew absolutely nothing - but he was now deeply upset. Mixed ability classes for eg: massive bee in his bonnet about it. Knows absolutely zero about education. Convinced that there is legitimate debate to be had about whether our current climate change is really caused by human activity. Etc. And that list is quite long. He feels it is entirely reasonable to be angry about things he doesn't actually know anything about - and worse, it seems to make him feel good in some sad way. The man has completely reduced from what he was - which was quite impressive previously.

It has been utterly tragic to see: it's like having cancer of the mind what the descent into grievance does to us. But it's very lucrative for it's vendors - and it seems to be highly addictive, to some at least.

 

The quite impressive Tony Benn, is widely quoted on this stuff.
If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions: "What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?

Well - quite. How can we get rid of you? What a great question! The current trend to a rejection of accountability is absolutely dreadful - combined with whole swathes, and even whole political parties who will now sacrifice standards which have held for decades, to support leaders who are far beyond any reasonable line, just to stay in power.

There's a great site which has a load of his quotes and he was largely bang on the money: TOP 25 QUOTES BY TONY BENN (of 147) | A-Z Quotes

 

When he retired suggests a change in his status.
I've recently retired and you do look at things from a slightly different angle, not saying it totally changes you but your actual circumstances do affect your thinking.

Often when working you don't have time for lots of these issues and it's easy to ignore them.
Age also plays a part, lots of factors.
I notice that because you didn't agree with him he was suddenly this very sad, wrong, individual who was irrational, and all because he started reading the Daily Mail.

Are we not allowed opinions on things we know little about, if not I leave now.

 

It wasn't that we disagreed @pete. We'd always done that. It was that he was suddenly so angry about stuff he had absolutely no knowledge of. Previously he wold have had a healthy respect for evidence and expertise: now has seems to have none!

And of course we all have opinions about stuff we don't know about: but I think it's wise to guard against how far we go on them - specially when, as in this case, there are very motivated political and financial interests, keen that we would be deeply opinionated - and angry - about stuff we know nothing about.

I must say: I am thinking about retirement more and more - and I am absolutely determined to stay busy and productive in some capacity to help my brain stay active and outward looking... no golf course for me!

 

What has been really funny actually is that his missus has become sickened by the cruelty of the DM - the daily picking on people - and she stopped reading it, with great impacts for her mind! Just a much more generous outlook - and a much more tolerant approach to others which is very welcome (at least for me!)