Energy prices

Watching GMTV this morning (I know, but it seems it's the only show our masters will appear on) and they had an OFGEN representative on to talk about why price cuts in oil haven't been passed on to us the consumers. The rep claimed that they'd put their hobnail boots on and given the energy companies a kicking. Ben asked "So when are the prices going to come down Spring? December?". "Oh I hope they'll be a lot sooner then that", replied the rep. Hope! How does that equate with a good kicking; picture the scene - a bloke built like a brick sh*t house in big boots is standing over a prone figure and kicking him repeatedly

"Right you greedy bastards you're going to drop your prices aren't you?"
"Yes yes whatever you say! We'll do it right away!"
"Hey wait don't exert yourselves, drop them whenever it's convenient for you to do so."

I still like the suggestion that there are "plenty of packages out there" yeah if you're dual-fuel and if you can get on the internet for paperless billing. Oh and if you can translate their tariffs - £a for the first n units followed by £b for the rest, or £c for m units followed by £d for the rest except for those units during off-peak or you're using o units of gas for a dual-fuel providing your paying by fixed direct debit and not variable DD. Damnit I had to pull up a spreadsheet to work it all out and was still scratching my head. Unless you can predict what your power consumption will be for the year, know exactly how you going to pay and are willing to sign a two-year (or more) contract you're stuffed.

Johnny Ball was on yesterday pimping nuclear power stations. Uh-huh and they'll be built where exactly? "You can't build it in the middle of that open countryside it's a beauty spot/site of special scientific interest/part of our natural heritage. No of course you can't build it there on that industrial site next to that populated area are you mad?"

I say build them off-shore, firm up those oil-rigs and fit them there and slap on some wind turbines and tidal generators while you're at it. Someone else suggested underwater, so why not combine the two? Sling the reactor under the rig. Worse case scenario open the sluices and drown the reactor in sea-water.