People knocking on my door trying to flog me debt I neither need nor want.
The union Unison is proposing an energy review of homes which it says will save money and reduce the need for fracking.
It suggests a free door-to-door assessment programme for households, that would identify remedial works required for every house to meet minimum energy efficiency standards.
It says this would save households between £300 and £600 each year.
Low-income households would receive the work for free, while others would be granted an interest-free loan.
Unison can fuck off, frankly. The Green Deal gobshites regularly try to telephone me to flog me a loan for work I don’t want or don’t need, but Truecall makes sure they don’t disturb us. Now the bastards want to come knocking at the door trying to flog cavity wall insulation or more loft insulation. That or double glazing.
So long as there is breath in my body, nothing but air is going to go into the cavity in my walls. Our loft is boarded out and as and when our windows rot, I’ll replace them – until then, the old ones will remain. Whatever happens, I’m not taking out any loans and I don’t need free advice telling me what needs doing. I know what needs doing and I will do it as and when it is needed and I can afford it and not one moment before.
“Low income households would receive the work for free”. No they wouldn’t. The rest of us would be paying for it.
That’s what free means these days.
Are you telling me that the Magic Money Tree doesn’t actually exist? You have just ruined my fairy-tale Father’s Day!
It would help if the average householder was capable of doing even the most basic calculations. The savings which can (allegedly) be made by fitting the latest “Eco Friendly” whatever, are more than cancelled out by the initial purchase price. Boilers are a case in point – for an outlay of (typically) £2k you could save £300 p/a, so it will be 7 years before you turn a profit. But anyone in the trade will tell you that these modern boilers will be needing expensive repairs by then. And what about the carbon footprint of all those parts??? Our 20 year old boiler will stay bolted to the wall as long as it keeps working, and parts are available.The same goes for cars, particularly the craze for diesels, which unless you do 20-30k + miles p/a will cost you more to buy and run than a petrol engined model. There is a firm advertising a “Green” anti-damp solution for walls, but this wouldn’t be needed if people didn’t have the cavity filled – the whole idea of an air gap was to allow natural circulation, thereby preventing damp in the first place. As to fitting solid external insulating panels on older properties – just look to Germany for horror stories concerning damp, mold, respiratory and other health problems…
Some of the green things the likes of Unison come out with makes me think that they get focus groups of sycophantic idiots who say yes to whatever cretinous suggestion they come out with out. If they had a focus group who said, ‘fuck off and act on your members behalf, stop your political machinations and reduce your membership subscription.’ Then they might have a chance at long term relevancy and survival.
Now, perhaps I’m just a tad naïve here, but isn’t Unison – err – a union, whose function is to protect the interests of its members amongst local government staff? You know – doing all those trade union-y things like negotiating pay rises and better deals on annual leave and representing their members in disputes etc etc etc?
When on earth did they become advisers to the Government on energy/green policies concerning those of us who don’t happen to be members of their friggin’ union? If I wanted them poking their green noses into my home I’d have asked them and, quite frankly, if I were a subscription-paying member of Unison I’d be pretty pissed off that they are using my hard-earned subscription money “helping” the rest of the country to become more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly rather than devoting their efforts to looking after me and bettering my working environment.
It’s always been the trouble with unions; once they get too big they forget all about the members who pay their wages and start thinking they can run the entire bloody country.
These schemes are usually of least use to the poorest as they live in rental accommodation. The landlord has little incentive to pay a penny on “improvements” which only pay off in supposedly reduced fuel bills. as they aren’t the ones paying them. It’s the shivering tenant hit by rocketing “green” supplements to their bills who pay,
Most of these schemes are also of least use to flat-dwellers, again disproportionally the poorest.
I have never seen this aspect addressed by the people who propose these schemes even though they would normally be eager to use the plight of the poor as a propaganda tool and be less than interested in the welfare of home-owners.
Once upon a time I had a sign on my door that said “no hawkers, circulars or take away menus”
I received a complaint and was told by a door to door salesman “you can’t use the word hawkers” I replied it’s my fucking front door if I want to put no snot nosed telephone salesman i will put that too. He flounced off in a huff.
Doorstepping really irritates me anyone appearing at my door will get short shift.
They always have and they always will.
If I want a service I go looking for it, if it has to come looking for me I DON’T NEED IT.
There’s a mature lady (but one with a wicked sense of humour) along our road who has a sign by her front door showing,
“To all cold callers:
I have found Jesus; my windows and doors don’t need replacing; the roof tiles are checked regularly and are fine; my central heating systems works perfectly, and I don’t want a block paved driveway. So unless you are David Beckham, are naked, and carrying a large bar of chocolate, please don’t bother me by knocking on my door.”
It seems to work, apart from David not knocking!
I must be on some kind of up market list. I’m getting Solar Panel soldiers these days. Not only is my leccy going to be free, I’m going to make money from the subsidies! They get very offended when I tell them where to stick their panels.
Anyone who tries to force unsolicited goods or services on me either by phone, letter or in person gets the same response : “Fuck off!”
Unison? Didn’t they used to be a trades union?
As a union I found them worse than useless. ‘Represent our members interest’? Ha bloody ha. Notorious for calling strike action only when their senior officers pension increases were threatened. The rest of the membership could go hang.
If their ‘green’ products are anything like the rest of their activities, expect customer service only between 10:30 & 3:45pm on weekdays (Bank holidays excluded, Fridays 10:30-11:30AM only) and for it to be intermittent, surly and brusque. Also don’t expect their product to work for more than three months before needing maternity leave or breaking down because of ‘stress’.. 😈