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UTILITY WEEK | 20TH - 26TH MARCH 2015 | 31 Community 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; Associate news editor: Mathew Beech, t: 01342 332082, e: mathew.beech@fav-house.com; Insights editor: Jane Gray, t: 01342 332087, e: jane.gray@fav-house.com; Research analyst: Vidhu Dutt, t: 01342 332026, e: vidhu. dutt@fav-house.com; Reporter: Lois Vallely, t: 01342 332080; e: lois.vallely@fav-house.com; Business development manager: Ed Roberts, t: 01342 332067, e: ed.roberts@fav-house.com; Business development executive: Sarah Wood, t: 01342 332077, e: sarah.wood@fav-house. com; Publisher: Amanda Barnes, e: amanda.barnes@fav-house.com. General enquiries: 01342 332000; Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year, overseas £689 per year, t: 020 8955 7045 or email membership sales manager Paul Tweedale: paultweedale@fav-house.com. 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 3,580 Average circulation Jan–Dec 2014 Membership subscriptions: UK £577 per year. Overseas £689 per year. Email: paultweedale@fav-house.com Martyn Williams @MartynWilliams2 Farage latest is a bit confusing. Says he hasn't a clue what causes climate change, and claims he's challenging consensus like Galileo William Marchant @richonlyinname It's lucky for the CMA that so many of its stakeholders are qualified time travellers. With 8 days to go, it still hasn't published 5 papers EnergyComms @SJEnergyComms So looks like #PMQs is all about the debates (or not) & the election today. Guess no look in for energy issues again #energy STA @thesolartrade New dawn for power of #solar – @solarimpulse plane has taken off on first leg of round the world trip supported by STA members @ABBgroupnews Simon Evans @DrSimEvans Yeo "Allowing opponents to rule out onshore wind has only 1 certain consequence... higher electricity prices for consumers." #UKenergyfuture Steve Hawkes @steve_hawkes Ofcom confirms – Greens are NOT a major party: "It would not be appropriate to add the Green Party to the list on this occasion." Carl Maxim @carlmaxim The Greens have only been awarded one party election broadcast, but on the plus side they can always recycle it. InsideClimate News @insideclimate In letter to Shell's CEO, John Ashton calls the company's #climate strategy "narcissistic, paranoid & psychopathic" Mark Kenber @MarkKenber We haven't got a choice between a prosperous low carbon economy or a prosperous high carbon economy Karl Mathiesen @KarlMathiesen "Oxford has a moral responsibility to stop procrastinating," says @GeorgeMonbiot – and threatens to hand back degree. Top Tweets Disconnector What's cooking? What goes around, come around, thinks Disconnector. It wasn't that long ago that Labour leader Ed Miliband was happy to rush to the front of the mob and denounce energy companies as a bunch of greedy profiteers. He didn't feel it necessary to offer any rationale for this position, of course, and the public mood didn't seem to require any. He simply asserted that the market was "broken" on the evidence that energy prices were high. Therefore there would be a price freeze and an inquiry. It was a shameless piece of pandering to popular prejudice. Fast-forward 18 months and Miliband is feeling the full force of hysterical criticism and a media mob baying for blood who don't give two hoots for fair play or even common sense. For those of you who didn't catch it, Ed did a so-focus TV documen- tary featuring himself, his wife and his north London home. In it, they were pictured (briefly) in a rather small, Spartan kitchen. Media commentators ridiculed "humourless" Ed for having such a dour, sterile little room to cook in. Typical out-of-touch Ed, they said. Unfortunately for Ed, a sympathetic journalist who had been to his house, Jenni Russell, leapt to his defence and pointed out that the room in question was more of a utility room. Ed has another kitchen, you see. A proper one downstairs. Cue much hilarity at "two kitchens" Ed. How fancy and Disconnector luxurious is that? Out of touch, you see. Energy bosses can be forgiven for feeling a certain schadenfreude at Miliband's predicament. It hurts when you're subjected to relentless and unreasonable abuse, doesn't it, Ed? It's not my job It's not been a particularly edify- ing week for politicians as we head into a strangely subdued general election campaign, with most of the political parties play- ing to stereotype. While Mili- band was tying himself in knots trying to pretend he lived in a council flat, from the comfort of his £2 million north London home, Conservative Party chair- man Grant Shapps was in a spot of bother when he was caught out telling an outright porky (a cardinal sin among politicians, whose cra is ever to deceive but never to lie). Grant claimed to LBC radio that he had "never" had a sec- ond job while an MP, and that he had stopped working as a web marketer under the pseudonym Michael Green as soon as he was elected in 2005. "I did not have a second job while being an MP, end of story," he said. With some relish, The Guardian then released a tape recording of young Grant making a sales pitch for his web business… in 2006. You don't get to be Conserva- tive Party chairman without having a brass neck. Shapps hotly denied that he had been caught out in a lie, but con- ceded that he may have been "over-firm" in his denials. Wonderful. It makes me so mad… It's the same old story of the "Westminster elite" up to their tricks. All smoke and mirrors. Thank goodness for Ukip and their rejection of any such subtlety. Whatever your politi- cal leanings, for sheer, jaw- dropping, slap-your-forehead, "they said what?" appeal, the Ukippers have it. The latest gem is the assertion by Ukip MEP Stuart Agnew that because plants need carbon dioxide, global efforts to reduce carbon dioxide will kill off plant life and lead to global, and cata- strophic, food shortages. If you think this story is the result of an enterprising journalist eavesdropping on Agnew chatting among friends, think again. He addressed his remarks to the European Parliament itself. "We have to have carbon dioxide. This is madness. Absolute madness," he said. "Our agriculture industry is going to suffer heavily if we attempt to bury carbon diox- ide. It is absolutely mad." Hmm. Disconnector thinks Agnew is right to smell madness in the air, but he is quite wrong about where it is emanating from.