Sunny May

My Solar PV system, installed some 6 1/2 years ago, repaid the £10000 capital investment a while back due to the extraordinarily generous terms offered by the contemporary feed-in tariff.  Nowadays, I am happy to sit back, confident in the knowledge that system will continue to generate a nice little tax-free index-linked every month which helps, in some respect, to compensate for the declining real value of my RAF Service pension.  Occasionally, however, it is pleasing to monitor the generation meter, particularly in sunny weather, and so it was in May with the recorder registering a record-beating 500 Miliband/Huhnes for the month!  My contract assumes that I have exported half of that figure back to the grid but I haven’t; every last unit has either been used or the surplus fed into my immersion heater.  Long may (very) smart meters be delayed.  Meantime, for the main event, its 500 Miliband/Huhnes x £0.57 for the month of May into the bank – “trebles all round,” as they say in Private Eye!

Mushroom v BBC

I have received a holding reply to my appeal dated 22 May 18. 

"Dear Mr Brown

Thank you for contacting the Executive Complaints Unit.

I’m writing to acknowledge receipt of the attached letter and to let you know someone from the unit will be in touch with a further response within 20 working days of the above date, or 35 working days in the case of more complex complaints.

Yours sincerely

Alison Wilson

Complaints Manager

Executive Complaints Unit"

NHS Funding Splurge

I am in favour improving our health and social care system, provided we can afford it. But in politics, affordability is a word used gravely in committee rooms, not in manifestos. Bereft of ideas and bogged down in a futile quest for compromise in the EU negotiation, the government seems intent on seizing the compassion high ground by announcing a massive cash injection to the sacred NHS. Not just a sticking plaster but a continuous transfusion of cash designed to disinfect the Tory brand and pre-empt the opposition.  But I wonder if just giving the NHS more cash is the answer? Firstly, are we sure the NHS is already spending our money wisely and efficiently? And what percentage of additional cash would be swallowed up by a Parkinson’s Law growth in bureaucracy and administration - a lot more fat Controllers? Both good questions, I’m sure you agree, but we are unlikely to get any answers in the headlong political rush to buy votes. The money, we are told will have to come from additional taxation, with which we are told we are mostly in favour, or additional borrowing for our heirs and successors to pay off. Neither funding source would help the economy grow so that future increases in health spending become sustainable.  On the other hand, at the moment we borrow about £14 billion a year to give away in overseas aid. And then there is the £12 billion a year we give to the EU. That’s £26 billion a year or a cool £500 million a week to spend. That would be more than enough to fund the 4% a year increase demanded by Simon Stevens without vandalising the defence budget again. One condition I would recommend inserting before handing over the cash, however; tell us in advance exactly how the cash will be spent and the measurable outcomes it will achieve.  Otherwise, go for it - that would be a tune to set Conservative hearts beating!