vivweb01blog

  This post was first released in October 2022 as a response to the political 'crises' of the time. Note the more recent updates at the end of the main text - nothing really changes, does it..... As a bit of light relief from the momentous events of recent weeks in politics, I thought I’d take a wry and admittedly somewhat irreverent look at what motivates our politicians….if Radio 4’s ‘News Quiz’ can get away with it each week, despite the BBC’s draconian rules on all things pc, then so can I… In seemingly perpetual 'crisis' situations like this one,   as individuals we only really have two options - either to laugh or cry; I prefer to err on the side of laughter – for now, at least. Recent upsets at the top of the political tree, and the almost obsessive speculation about the outcome of yet another leadership race in the media, prompted me last week to ask myself the question:  “Why on earth would anyone actually want to be PM at a time like this ?” The role is...

Editor's Note: As a frequent local bus user, I was inspired recently to write a brief guide  for my website's travel page  on how to get the best out of our bus and train networks . Herewith a copy for the blog - hope it's useful....Now includes some info on local UK air travel....   Our UK public transport network has come a long way on since the days before the internet became  widely available in the late 1990s..... Working out how to get from A to B without major trauma during those somewhat simpler times relied on having a good sense of direction, a detailed knowledge of bus/train timetables, some decent maps, a knowledge of how to read them, and being reasonably mobile.  Timetable information was usually only available from tourist information offices, bus and train stations, etc., and only in paper form, and was quite often already out of date by the time you got hold of it. There were no digital bus signage boards for guidance, and few bus stops had...

  Although 2029 is a long way ahead, and Labour's leadership and cabinet will be focused on more immediate policy decisions, their advance planners should already be thinking hard about their electoral prospects…and not just for the next general election. The reason why they should be concerned at this early stage is that the next tranche of local elections are only a little under 3 months away, so the first ‘day of reckoning’ at the ballot box is, relatively speaking, nigh. Does this really matter, though, given their huge majority in parliament ? The answer is that it does…the hard reality is that the brunt of any early disapproval of the new government by the electorate (and there’s plenty of that around just now!) will fall on local Labour councillors, many of whom come up for re-election this year and will be worried about retaining their seats on May 1 st . If, as seems quite possible,  Labour  suffer a whitewash in these polls, it will signal they are 'gettin...

 Why are No-SC tariffs important and when are we likely to see them ? Our Electricity prices in UK are acknowledged to be the highest in Europe.  Despite this serious indictment, as discussed in a previous blog , the Electricity and Gas suppliers have continued to penalise low users by first re-introducing, then continually hiking up their standing charges (SCs) to hitherto unprecedented levels. This has hit many singles living on their own.   P articularly hard hit have been some pensioners, with the rapid increase in their fuel costs and a meagre state pension to exist on. An additional blow to pensioners this autumn was Reeves’ cruel indefinite withholding of their winter fuel payment, and a relatively cold winter so far, with some quite prolonged cold spells already.  Consumers generally have now wakened up to the fact that our energy charges are the highest in Europe, and have started to question the inefficiency and profiteering of the supply industry ...