vivweb01blog

A Warning to low Electricity and Gas users:   If you are anything other than a high user of both fuels, don't be tempted by offers from your supplier to fix your tariffs now.... Suppliers are now piling on the pressure to fix with a plethora of different and highly confusing offers, none of which include a reduction in the standing charge . These offers have been coming in thick and fast since last month following the latest price cap rise, and the unexpected rise in the cap from January, and OFGEM are effectively 'co-conspiring' with suppliers to try to get you to fix now, by soft-pedalling on a final decision on the precise details of any SC reductions. There is also a nasty rumour that OFGEM has caved in even further to the cartel and is likely to set a minimum consumption level (ca 666 kWh for electricity and 2500kWh for Gas) for a 'low' user to qualify for a reduced-SC tariff. This is ridculously high and would exclude many pensioners who have already cut their...

  Editor's note: See recent update 23.11.25 at the end of the main article for the latest news on the new UK.GOV plans for reorganising recycling collections....if you're waiting for a bin, don't hold your breath.... ---------------------------- As one of the more incisive questions of our age, "When is Bins ?" definitely deserves some attention…and hopefully a reliable and effective solution for those afflicted by the recent changes (i.e. most of us!). In days of old, life was much simpler when it came to getting our rubbish collected…. The majority of households had just one dustbin. We put it out for the dustmen (as we affectionately referred to them in those balmy 'pre-pc' days) on the same day each week, and with a bit of luck it got emptied sometime on that day.  Life is much more complicated nowadays when it comes to dealing with our domestic waste. The advent of recycling and climate change awareness, which admittedly was overdue  and necessa...

  I first published this blog in late 2023 when the realisation that vaping was harmful to teenage lungs was becoming more widespread, and the authorities were finally waking up to the fact that they needed to do something.  All the evidence that has emerged since then has tended to confirm our suspicions - i.e. that long-term vaping does impair lung function, and is likely to be doing so irreversibly. We should thus only be permitting the use of vapes strictly as an aid to stop smoking, and only for as long as is necessary to 'kick the habit'. If we fail to restrict availability, and don't manage to convince our kids as to the dangers, we will be condemning a whole generation to breathing problems in their middle and later years, with a serious burden placed on our perpetually overstretched NHS as a result. And it's not just the UK either, the problem seems to have spread worldwide , with 100 million plus now vape-addicted, no less than 15 million of them teenagers. Th...