h/t Breitbart; Boris Johnson’s Green Britain has plumbed new depths of humiliating energy poverty, with the revelation that in 2020 Ovo Energy advised customers to exercise and cuddle pets if they couldn’t afford to heat their homes.
Energy firm blasted for telling customers to cuddle pets and do star jumps to keep warm
Ovo Energy customers have blasted the company that gave out advice like “cuddle with pets” or “hula hoop contests” to keep warm and avoid using heating with prices going up.
ByBen Bloch Tim Hanlon News Reporter
05:48, 11 Jan 2022Britain’s third-largest energy supplier has apologised to its customers after it was criticised for giving advice like “cuddling pets” or doing housework to avoid putting the heating on due to price hikes.
Ovo Energy said it was “embarrassed” at the advice sent out to customers to avoid using the heating amid rising energy bills, reported BristolLive.
The email, seen by the Financial Times, contained 10 “simple and cost effective ways to keep warm this winter”, and they included suggestions like having “a cuddle with your pets and loved ones to help stay cosy” and “try cleaning the house”.
Other advice includes “challenging the kids to a hula hoop contest”, “doing a few star jumps”, and “keep your oven open after you’ve finished cooking”.
The email was reportedly sent to customers of SSE Energy Service, which was acquired by Ovo in 2020.
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Read more: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/energy-firm-blasted-telling-customers-25910019
There is no doubt in my mind that energy bills in Britain are a genuine problem. Boris Johnson’s green energy policies have inflicted unconscionable suffering on ordinary Britons.
When I lived in Britain, some of my neighbours could not afford to heat their homes – they survived winter every year in freezing cold houses or apartments, by bundling up with warm clothes and blankets, and consuming lots of hot drinks. These people, mostly older Britons who had worked and paid their taxes all their life, and trusted that the government would honour promises to look after their retirement, bore their hardship with fortitude and dignity. The heater always went on immediately when they had visitors. But I bet it went off PDQ when the visitors left.
One day I stopped one of my neighbours as he was leaving his home. The pavements were covered with ice, and he was attempting to hobble out on his cane to walk a mile to the nearest shop for groceries for himself and his wife, because he could not afford a taxi. The pavements were covered in ice because the council had run out of grit – they planned grit supplies based on MET forecasts of a warmer than normal winter. I had already slipped over twice on the ice.
I took care of their needs that day.
Given the inflation busting green energy price hikes of recent years, and the economic impact of Britain’s Covid lockdowns, it must be far worse now than when I left, especially for older people on fixed incomes.
I was fortunate, I could afford to heat my home, I was young and healthy and had a good job. But I could not deny the horror of the thought that one day I might end up just like my neighbours, living out my twilight years in a bitterly cold unheated house, risking my life hobbling across frozen pavements maintained by incompetent local governments, because I couldn’t afford a taxi.
For shame Boris Johnson. You were not Prime Minister on that day I helped my neighbours, but your inhumane high cost green energy policies have made life worse for millions of people who believed your false promise of a better future.
What was the name of that band from my misspent youth? Three Dog Night? Really what do these fools think is going to happen as the public gets more and more angry at the cost to save us from nothing.
But make sure you are fully jabbed and double-masked first – gotta ‘stay-safe’ you know
Who, pray tell, was Prime Minister on that fateful day (in East Anglia by any chance?).
Those of us without pets and arthritis are pretty much screwed in the land of Princess Nut Nuts
I don’t know, it sure seems to be going to plan as far as I can tell.
“If somebody wants to build a coal-fired power plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them,” Obama said, responding to a question about his cap-and-trade plan. He later added, “Under my plan … electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
– Barck Obama
The Socialists always help themselves by using other people’s resources, the rest of us try to help other people using our own resources.
The news is bigwigs in the UK energy sector say [gas] prices will not come down before 2024
This is to be expected because policy focus has shifted from providing cheap, reliable energy to reducing emissions.
Every form of socialism/collectivism requires sacrifices are made.
There are two options to avoid the pain
Start fracking
Abolish VAT and green levies.
I know what I would do
A.N. Heretic.
Shivering in the Dark is well on its way to become an Olympic Sport, but none of those nasty gold/silver/bronze medals, please. Instead maybe unicorn farts? Decomissioned windmill blades? Certificate “Science Advisor” of NASA?
Don’t cuddle bad public policy either.
It is time to go, Boris!… You were no longer needed after you have consummated Brexit, now you are being a nuisance.
None of the steps by which successive Governments have brought us to this point has ever been mandated.
It becomes clearer by the day that those we elect are not the ones in charge
“keep your oven open after you’ve finished cooking”.
Cooking!! … bloody luxury that.
If the UK keeps going down the socialist eco-lunacy route, people won’t be cuddling their pets, they’ll be getting rid of them because the money spent on dog food and vets bills will be needed to pay extortionate energy bills.
Along the same lines, Marie Antoinette purportedly said “let them eat cake” ….
Garrison Kiellor gave similar advice some years ago on his radio show when he said that if people in Lake Wobegon are cold in their wintertime bed they pull up another cat.
So, no wood burning in the fireplace is allowed?
Oh, right! I forgot:
BoJo is The King and The King’s forests may not be touched. Henry II would be SO proud!!!!
leaving your oven open will do nothing, unless it hangs out your window. exercise requires an increased food intake. pets require food.
looks like they are dropping standardized tests in UK too.
It’s a bit like raising your taxes, and then giving you “helpful tips” on saving money, innit.
Mainstream media has steadfastly refused to report the energy disaster that is ongoing in Britain and Europe.
Because of the utter failure of wind and solar-electricity generation (combined with Europe’s colossal wrong-way bet on natural gas supplies from Gazprom), the prices of electricity and natural gas in Europe are now 7-8× what they are in the U.S.
It is a gigantic clusterf*ck and there is a genuine possibility of large scale cold-related fatalities (and, most assuredly, of energy poverty). There have already been instances of large industry closures due to skyrocketing feedstock prices (see European fertilizer manufacturers for one glaring example).
The failure of U.S. media to report this is mind-boggling. They are deliberately and intentionally failing to inform the public.
It is the height of irresponsibility.
I thought these guys were against owning pets?
That’s not going to make any difference — the heat will still diffuse out into the room eventually in any case.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10393369/Ovo-energy-boss-blames-employee-ridiculous-embarrassing-message.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
“‘Somebody had a bad day, and sent out an email’: Millionaire Ovo energy boss blames employee for ‘ridiculous’ and ’embarrassing’ message telling cash-strapped customers to ‘cuddle your cat’ and ‘do star jumps’ if they are cold”.
And the real reason that Gas prices are so high – courtesy of the dictator who really, really wants to kill his only export (gas) in order to help mitigate climate change and give up his only economic weapon to boot (sarc).
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/01/12/ftse-100-markets-live-news-shares-pound-inflation-energy/
“Russia is to blame for the energy crisis that is wreaking havoc through economies across Europe, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.
IEA executive director Fatih Birol said Moscow could boost gas deliveries to the continent by at least a third from current levels, but it’s keeping spot sales capped despite high prices.
That’s the equivalent of 3bn cubic metres per month, or a new cargo ship carrying liquefied natural gas arriving every day.
Mr Birol said: “There are strong elements of tightness in the European gas market due to Russia’s behavior. The current storage deficit in the European Union is largely due to Gazprom.”
I tried cuddling with my parakeet. It didn’t help and she was not amused.
Invoking Poe’s Law.
Don’t worry – 53% gas + 5% coal are currently keeping the UKs lights on – fossil fuels are the future for at least 3 decades
Quiz: What did citizens in advanced western nations use before household pets & farm animals for keeping warm in the winter?
Electricity & natural gas!
Scary to think that less than a century ago, these people used to run most of the civilized world. Now they’re reduced to sleeping with pets and farm animals to survive winter, just like their pre-industrial ancestors.
Progress!