“Insulation was supposed to save us money… but it ruined our homes: Millions crippling repair costs after botched green upgrades”,writes Chris Brooke in the Daily Mail:
Getting Britain’s homes insulated is the cornerstone of the Government’s green energy policy and an obsession for road-blocking eco-protesters.
But the scale of damp-related problems linked to cavity wall insulation is so serious that an MP is calling for an independent inquiry to improve protection for householders.
One expert has estimated that up to two million homes may have problems as a result of insulation being pumped into the cavity between outside and inside walls.
In some extreme cases, the resulting problems of damp and mould inside the house have rendered properties worthless and unsellable.
If the Lockdown Frolics of Downing Street had never been revealed to the public (I must admit to a twinge of admiration for the fact that they kept the secret for well over a year), I believe this issue would have brought Boris down eventually. The insulation issue is just one bomblet within the incoming political clusterbomb that also contains the energy price crisis, and the fact that forcing millions of people to pay thousands of pounds to replace gas boilers with heat pumps is about as welcome as Dominic Cummings popping up between Carrie’s designer sheets.
Net Zero will become so unpopular that the next election will be won by whichever political party promises to stop it. (Edit: Or gives the impression of being most likely to break their promise to keep it.) There is scope here for the Tory post-Johnson redemption arc, if they change course in time. I can see it. You can see it. Why can’t they?
As politicians, they are immune to logic that benefits the People.
They could have simply watched Kevin Rudd’s government-run insulation fiasco in Australia to see where this would likely go.
“Botched green upgrades”
This is another version of “not the right kind of socialism”. Scapegoats will be found (I.e. invented) to avoid confronting (I.e. admitting) the root cause of the unworkability.
Sounds like systemic racism to me.
Meanwhile, virtue-signalling Aberdeenshire Council are removing open fires in council-owned properties in Braemar.
According to Aberdeenshire Council’s Head of Housing and Building Standards, Rob Simpson,:
Of course, one, sure-fire way, to meeting net-zero targets is to have your tenants die from hypothermia.
If I thought that they were doing this because of a real threat of structure fires from open-flame sources – like, x number of kiddie deaths due to fire in a year – I think I’d support them strongly.
But there’s no mention of that. Structure fire hasn’t been an issue, I guess. They decided to board up the fireplaces because of carbon dioxide counts.
Fanatics. Maybe you’ll see fireplace protesters before you see insulation riots.
I live in a house built 1909 with cavity walls. I have not and will not pump stuff between the walls for precisely this reason. Further, it’s easy to get it in. Not so easy to get out again.
Much of the support for Net Zero in the current “Conservative” administration seems to come from the former Tory Party bike shacked up in 10 Downing Street, so unless BoJo has started getting his oats from a new mistress (entirely possible knowing BoJo, but a bit difficult while PM), I suspect that the Net Zero nonsense will continue yet a while.
Hopefully, those like Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, fighting over the carcass of the current parliamentary term will note the obvious advantages of getting rid of dead weight such as Net Zero as part of their leadership campaign.
I said the same. The political party that knocks net zero on the head, retains gas boilers and lets us plebs keep our ICE cars will walk it.
It is virtue signalling of the highest order.
If most third world households got fridges then the coal powered plants to do so will cancel out anything that the whole of Europe does.
We already have lower co2 emissions than the late 19th century despite a massivley increased population.
Its a power play
Need a better catchphrase and origin story. De-Insulate Britain just doesn’t work.
Something using the terms moldy, soggy, droopy, damp, spores would work better.
I gather nobody in government thought to ask Canadian, Russian or Alaskan builders how best to properly retrofit insulation.
Because even my stupidest employee ever, Claude, knew how much water would fly out of even a pinhole leaks in vapour barriers, plate itself on cold walls and structural elements as frost then melt when it warmed up, then rot, rust, corrode and mold the crapola out of everything.
Never underestimate the ability of government to fcuk things up.
I know the remark about Downing Street frolics was intended as an aside but did they really keep the secret for a year (or a year and a half according to my calculations)? Given the number of people involved it seems unlikely that members of the press haven’t been sitting on this for ages. Assuming that, why go to press now? My suspicious mind tells me it is because the Covid fascists fear they are losing the argument and feel that Johnson is the greatest obstacle in their way. The restrictions in the UK are not a lot of fun but they are lot less onerous than in many – if not most – other places and that they aren’t is a lot to do with Johnson.
On the subject of heating, is it my imagination, or was it not just a few years ago that the government was forcing people to buy combi-boilers – or some such contraption – in order to something, something climate change and it is these very contraptions that they will presumably be forcing people to scrap?
On the contrary:
At least in the 1st wave, the restrictions in the UK were a lot more onerous than in most other OECD countries, as demonstrated by decrease in GDP.
And that has a lot to do with Johnson, because if he had put in place mild restrictions EARLY, the problem would not have grown to the point where stay-at-home mandates could be imposed on him, and on you all.
It must be said, though, that this scandal suggests that there is still more integrity in British politics than in American politics. Unless you think that a Labour PM could have gotten away with doing the same thing?
Patrick, it’s condensing boilers that you are referring to: you can have a condensing combi boiler (central heating and instant hot water) , or a condensing system boiler (central heating and a hot tank in the airing cupboard).
Condensing boilers were brought in and mandated for newbuild or replacements because they are, I understand, more efficient in heat transfer (or something).
But of course they run on gas or oil as a fuel, so in the new, net-zero, world order they will be verbobten.
North of the Solway/Tweed Line, the inter-linked smoke/heat detector debacle has already set the precedent for forcing homeowners to replace something in their homes, so no doubt in a few years we’ll be subjected to the same with regard to our heating systems.
More net zero insanity here.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/sunnica-solar-farm/
On the subject of government mandated covidiocy. I thought that the was something very sheep like about people who happily went shopping without a mask on and then, the second the government announced that they were needed again, obligingly masked up on mass. No thought about the fact that they obviously don’t work. No thought about the fact that the government and the paid shills masquerading as scientists are completely clueless, they just do as they are told. Then I observe the people at the gym, almost everyone wears a mask to go shopping, hardly anyone wears one at the gym. Saturday morning sees the kiddies’ swimming lessons with lots of parents on the poolside watching. Mask wearing is a little higher among those but nothing like in the shops. So is this a peer pressure thing where grown adults are basing their decisions on what they see everyone else doing?
House walls are built with an internal gap – for-a-reason.
As for government “advice” – it comes from officials and “experts” who follow fads and fashions. Sadly elected politicians are caught in a machine where they (we) are often little more than a rubber stamp.
Even verbally opposing officials (let alone going against their “advice”) can get a politician accused of the crime of “bullying” – as the Home Secretary found out.
Compare and contrast:-
Ref : https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Norway-Rakes-In-Highest-Ever-Oil-Revenues-As-Prices-Surge.html
Surely this is great news for Scotland, on the other side of the same gas and oil fields? In fact with access to even more? Surely this should be a huge bonus for the fishy-woman’s huge deficits?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-59608521
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58186181
Err, no. Better to run the economy into the ground, and let fuel prices climb so high that people cannot afford to heat their own homes.
Although I have now lived in the United States for nearly thirty years, I am still a British citizen. I’m also only a few years away from retirement (I hope!) and am seriously thinking of returning to the UK and establishing the NOT Zero Party, which would campaign on explaining to people the full consequences for them of net zero. I don’t expect to win anything, but I do hope to be a thorn in the flesh for the other parties and their utter unanimity on this issue.
Legally “non binding” things have a way of becoming legally binding – very legally binding indeed. Even in a country that produces about 1% of CO2 emissions (in short, even if you believe that CO2 is causing dangerous Global Warming – getting rid of the United Kingdom is not going to make any real difference).
That happened with the Frankfurt School Marxist doctrines (“Diversity and Inclusion”, “Equity”) which have been the law in the United Kingdom since at least 2010 (indeed the Home Office had openly Marxist academic advisers as far back as the 1970s). And it is happening with the “Green” agenda as well. Agenda 21 (going back to the start of the 1990s) and Agenda 2030 may indeed start off as “legally nonbinding” – but then they get put into local law and land use “policies”.
This is very rarely done by one political party standing for the international agreement and another political party standing against it – in an election, with the people deciding between them (for or against the various international agreements and policies).
No – often now officials and “experts” tell the politicians of all political parties what the basic policies are, and then the elected politicians present to the public what they have been taught. Taught in various briefings and training events.
The late Maurice Cowling was a very cynical man (and had a rather nasty streak) – but his account of J.S. Mill and others had a bit of truth in it.
The “educated experts” (such as the late J.S. Mill) were happy with democratic elections – as long as THE RESULT OF THE ELECTION DID NOT MATTER, as whoever won would follow “educated expert advice”.
A small group of landowners controlling much of the House of Commons were difficult to control – but a mass electorate of many millions of people (with individual voters rarely making much difference) could be manipulated – as least so the “Philosophical Radials” hoped. Just take over the political parties (via both education – and a professional government machine, a “Civil Service” and various other official and quasi official bodies) and it will not matter who the people actually vote for – the basic policies will be the same (or so they hoped).
A very cynical view and NOT fully true – but there is a disturbing element of truth in it.
It would be a good sign if ministers and officials stopped going to international policy conferences – if policy is decided by the people (via elections), then there is no point in going to these international policy conferences.
Leaving international bodies and organisations (such as the World Health Organisation) would also be a move to indicate that democracy is actually real.
I very rarely agree with the late Tony Benn – but his basic questions about people making political policy decisions “who elected you?” and “how do we get rid of you, if we do not like what you are doing?” are good questions – and such things as the United Nations, the IMF, the WHO, the World Bank, the WEF (and on and on) clearly fail his tests.
It is no good voting politicians out of office if the new set of politicians follow, basically, the same policies – because the elected politicians were not really the people making the policies in the first place.
I think net zero (IQ) can be achieved with a condescending boiler and a smug meter.
The cavity between the ears of believers does not prevent them getting moist at the thought of such things, which I suppose is why they don’t make the connection between filling cavities and damp interiors.
Net zero?
Zero debate, zero logic, zero practicality , zero chance of working…………
A condescending boiler (aka a stupidity pump) and a smug meter gets you well on the way to zero something or other (I believe it begins with I and ends in Q).
A large cavity between the ears doesn’t stop the afflicted getting all moist at the thought of such things, which may explain the lack of understanding as to what cavity walls are actually for.
Entered first comment and it didn’t seem to register when I looked several hours later, so redid (from failing memory)………In the remote chance anybody was wondering
Mark – I have been there brother. I have lots of problems with computers and other such.
Well, the leader of the Labour party, never mind “a Labour PM”, is trying to get away with what (credit to her for not showing the usual bias) this BBC presenter suggests is the same thing or worse. Watch if you enjoy two minutes of Sir Keir Starmer explaining that he and colleagues sharing beer and pizza inside must not be compared to the PM and Dominic sharing cheese and wine outside.
Toward the end, a pressured Starmer veers into suggesting maybe it was “unreasonable” to expect people not to do this kind of thing. I was reminded of Boris noting that the average age of death from the virus exceeded the average age of death in the UK and joking “Catch Covid and live!” It cannot be denied that UK political leaders do sometimes say sensible things. Unfortunately, these occasional sensible remarks do not seem to guide their public policy. 🙂
Funny thing is, no one who participates in internet comment sections these days wondered at all. Everyone knew what happened. 😉 (“Huh, it’s gone. Try again . . . Oops.”)
((ETA: there’s a great analogy to computerized paperless voting to be had from this.))