In 1967 Norman Mailer’s Why we are in Vietnam, answered the title’s question with a long narrative of ignorant, self righteous exceptionalism, exemplified by a group of recently-elevated-to-middle-class, middle managers from the corporate world of insurance and advertising (more recently examined through the television series Mad Men). Wannabe frontiersmen; sons of white settlers on a hunting trip. The nuance is different, but the saga of seeking to have our gas supply disconnected and the meter and it’s monthly standing charge removed is a small parable of a national infrastructure sold off to not to false frontiersmen but bullshit buccaneers burning up the sky.
We, I and my household, haved stopped using gas for hot water at last. Our house is now electricity-only. We are spending lots of holiday money in the hope of decarbonising some of our own consumption. Solar panels, external wall insulation and a heat pump. We got an induction hob four years ago. So we get the quotes and choose a firm, Good Energy, as it happens. They are not our “Supplier.” Our “Supplier” was Bulb, that went bust, was “nationalised” and then “sold” to Octopus Energy. So “Octopus Energy” is now our “Supplier”.
Good Energy Works install the heat pump. They roll up the government grant into the cost (there is a long story) and it all works. The gas supply is capped off on our (consumer) side of the meter, which is now just a lump in a crowded space.
Having a gas meter incurs a standing charge, even if you use no gas. Good Energy tells us they cannot touch the meter. The meter belongs to the “Supplier”. So we contact “Octopus”. “No!” they say. They are not the actual supplier-supplier. They just send the bills. The supplier-supplier is (another long story) Southern Gas Networks (SGN, “Your gas. Our network”). You need to contact them. So SGN has a helpful website. Where they offer to take their meter away and cap off “your” supply for a fee of £1,179 (plus VAT). There is currently a wait of about 5 months in our area and they won’t schedule a provisional appointment before you have given them the money! WT F’n F!
I can see removing the meter and capping the supply side might be a disincentive for future purchasers who want to reinstate a gas cooker? The only problems in the end for us are the standing charge (that HAS to go), the space the meter and its pipework occupy and the symbolism of actually getting rid of gas from the property.
The longer story about national infrastructure should be salutary. Anything fiddly and hard to deal with has been slid off the shoulders of the private sector back onto the “common-wealth”. The “state” has no interest in anyone but the biggest profit-takers, who stumble around dribbling port, flying everywhere, sexting MPs, and burning gas in the patio barbeque of their third home in a Caribbean tax haven while pouring shit in our rivers and burning up the sky.
rWorld2 