Energy Bills Rise

News Bites
Energy bills to rise - said the news this morning.

Why? Because some power stations are reaching the end of their DESIGNED lifetime. So! If the government knew the DESIGNED lifetime, why did they not prepare for it?

I did see one crazy suggestion that it was all the fault of the bankers and the financial crisis, but I think we can dismiss that.

It is nothing else but poor planning.

What is very worrying is that Industry is the greatest user of power, I do not have a problem with that, it is what you would expect, it's the way of the world. BUT, think about it for a moment, only 11% of our GDP is from manufacturing, and it has been declining steadily for years. That means that power capacity has been declining faster than manufacturing capacity! Agreed?

If we take this argument to its natural conclusion, then maybe, rather than the lack of power being a result of cumulative incompetence of successive governments, there is another reason.

Maybe it was planned?

Maybe successive governments have been colluding to steer the decline of industry to match the available power, rather than building power capacity?

The question is WHY?

I think we will revisit this topic in a later Blog

Trainer Talk
Well I have had a few days off Blogging and am back fully recharged.

I have not been lazy, quite the opposite it's been none stop!

Saturday
What a great day we had on Saturday, we took the kids to Jodrell Bank and saw the giant radio telescope and had a walk around their gardens on a fantastic day. A coffee and a sandwich in the cafe rounded off the day perfectly

Sunday
Went to Church on Sunday, had a trip around the car boot, got son's glasses fixed at Specsavers and spent an hour with him watching him on his scooter. A rare event that I want to encourage as he much prefers computer to outdoor activities.

Monday
Had Virgin here as we have just switched away from Sky. Internet access speed has now increased from 8 to 30 mbps. This is pathetic compared to a lot of Europe but for a basic package it's OK.

Our course last week was down 3 people, that could not be released by their mills, so next week we are holding a 2-day intense course for them to bring them up to speed on the technical side. We will catch up on the soft skills later.
We will also use these two days as a technical taster for those that want to 'test drive' the course. We have already had 4 nominees, so I have been doing the extra printing and binding.

Tuesday
Today we have been viewing houses and doing a lot of Prison Widow stuff, but I will cover that in the next section


Prison Widow
We have been very busy behind the scenes here. We have now registered a company Prison Widow Ltd. We are looking at various sources of income such as sponsorship, commission based activities, and setting up an on-line shop to sell stuff. We have been battling the banks to  set up a business account, but we think that at last it is sorted. It's just amazing what hoops they make you jump through. Tomorrow we have a meeting with a website designer, Natasha. We look forward to announcing soon, that Prison Widow will be able to devote herself full time to this activity. And when she does - Beware Establishment!


Thought for the day

They begin the evening  news with 'Good Evening,' then proceed to tell you why it isn't.