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utILItY WeeK | 13th - 19th June 2014 | 31 Community Disconnector Editor: Ellen Bennett, t: 01342 332084, e: ellen.bennett@fav-house.com; News editor: Jillian Ambrose, t: 01342 332061, e: jillian.ambrose@fav-house.com; Energy editor: Megan Darby, t: 01342 332087, e: megan.darby@fav-house.com; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@fav-house. com; Reporter: Conor McGlone, t: 01342 332083, e: conor.mcglone@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ed Roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house. com; Sales executive: Hayley Cronin, t: 01342 332077, e: hayley.cronin@fav-house.com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year, t: 01342 332011. ISSN: 1356-5532. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office. Printed by: Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE. Published by: Faversham house Ltd, Windsor Court, Wood Street, east Grinstead, West Sussex Rh19 1uZ Remembrance day with HRH Many readers will probably have followed the travails of United Utilities' intrepid engineers in the hit BBC Two series The Watermen as the guys battled to keep the taps flowing and toilets flushing for the company's seven million customers across the northwest of England, even as the ageing infrastructure crum- bled around them and the good citizens of Salford opened up fire hydrants to cool themselves down on a hot day. The six-week show, which fin- ished at the end of last month, made Andy, Tessa and all the rest into something of local celebrities, and obviously gave a massive boost to United Utilities in its efforts to demonstrate to its customers what exactly it is they get for their money. That's the power of telly. But for one of the main char- acters in the show, 53-year-old aqueduct enthusiast and pipe- lines expert John Butcher, it also had a completely unexpected bonus: he got to meet the Queen. Disconnector kids you not. UU received an invitation to the Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace and John was selected to represent the team, so off he went to London with the family – sons Ben and Tom and wife Helen – to have tea with the Queen. Her maj duly worked the room – or in this case the garden – and managed to have a chat with everyone in the Butcher Disconnector clan. When son Ben, 20, told her he was studying at Stirling Uni- versity, the Queen asked: "Is it still as wild as it was?" A rather bemused Ben told her that on the contrary it was "tranquil and rather beautiful". Apparently the Queen had visited the university 40 years earlier and been heckled by some republican oiks in the student body. The grand old lady might be 88, but she's got all her marbles – and her memory is pin sharp. Is there a problem here? Whether a similar path to glory awaits the staff of Eon's customer contact centre, who will feature in the third and final instalment of the Channel 4 programme The Complainers, remains to be seen. The premise of the series is to explore the people who lodge some of the 40 million complaints made against UK businesses and gov- ernment departments each year, and the people whose job it is to handle them. It was a brave move on the part of Eon to let the cameras in. Let's hope they get a fair crack of the whip, because in tellyland they like to keep things simple, and normally that doesn't work out well for energy companies. The episode features a customer whose ongoing dispute with Eon has le him without electricity for three-and-a-half years. We'll have to wait and see where the programme makers direct our sympathies, but Disconnector is confidently predicting that it won't end up with any invita- tions to meet the Queen. The series started last Tues- day and Eon's opportunity to razzle dazzle 'em is scheduled for transmission on 24 June. A rose by any other name… Ha! Disconnector knew it all along. The headline in The Times confirmed all his long- suppressed gender prejudices. "Hurricanes named aer women are deadlier than the male." Yup, women are more unpredictable and prone to fits of passion – and even blind nature recognises this fact! On closer inspection, it turns out that people (mostly men) tend to underestimate the potential threat of a hur- ricane if it is named aer a woman, and loiter around the place for longer. Therefore more of them get killed. A study carried out by Kiju Jung from the University of Illinois analysed data about the 94 hurricanes that hit the US between 1950 and 2012 and found that hurricanes with girly names could account for five times the fatalities of ones with more manly monikers. It looks like Disconnector will have to put his gender prejudices back in a box. And try to remember that a power- ful storm system isn't any less powerful for being called Poppy. Or whatever. 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2013 Subscriptions: UK £577 per year, Overseas £689 per year fhcustomerservices@ abacusemedia.com Jonathan Reynolds MP @jreynoldsMP In Spain they call solar farms 'solar orchards'. I like that #WSL2014 Barry Gardiner MP @BarryGardiner Is the marriage of Sustainability and Profitability a love marriage or an arranged marriage? Greg Barker @GregBarkerMP Are you ready for the launch tomorrow of the #GreenDeal Home Improvement Fund? #GDHIF #RocketBoosters! 3WhitehallPlace @3WhitehallPlace Today we are boosting the Green Deal by offering a free weekend for two with Chris Huhne #GreenDealWithIt REA @REAssociation Wow! Brazil's national stadium has more #solar power than 11 of the countries competing in the #WorldCup Bryony Worthington @bryworthington With no fanfare UK just tightened its carbon belt by 36m tonnes. Equals annual emissions from 2 biggest coal stations Paul Lewis @paullewismoney Just 44% of people interviewed want a smart meter – time to end this £11bn folly which will empower energy companies not users H2Otalent @h2otalent Could the #Ofwat penalty cut in #ThamesWater regulated capital value spook capital markets? Energy Networks @energynetworks @ofgem figs last week show total network costs remain at 22% of the average household bill next year. About 83p a day Energy UK @EnergyUKcomms Now the sun's out, try hanging your clothes out to dry rather than using a tumble dryer #InternationalClotheslineWeek #energysaving Richard Hall @richonlyinname "Energy efficiency is the policy equivalent of James Milner" = sentence that shd never have been written. A Chris Waddle penalty of prose Top Tweets