HIPs don't lie

[webofevil]

It’s not that home information packs are intrinsically wrong; it was the way they have been handled. Any attempt to criticise the way they are being set up is presented as the evil machinations of a sinister cabal of wreckers and polluters.

The packs are meant to include energy performance certificates, which will show how economically a house performs in energy consumption. These certificates are compulsory because of EU legislation, and so will have to be introduced anyway. The other elements of the home information pack are separate from these certificates. Yet to hear our Dead Leader and his juniors tell it, anyone who criticises any aspect of the packs is essentially an eco-terrorist.

Wary of being thwarted by vested interests in maintaining the status quo in housebuying, with its sundry scams and consumer tripwires such as multiple surveys on the same property, the government have hunkered down and snapped at anyone daring to come close, friend or foe. They were warned a year ago that their plans hadn’t been thought through, and more recently were told that far too little was in place for their shiny new scheme, but they just snapped some more and accused everyone else of wrongthink. This is a dangerous mentality, suggesting excess levels of hubris and idiocy. It almost makes their attempts to “seek consensus” look good.

If they truly are concerned that people should improve their houses for the sake of the environment, why not knock VAT off boilers, lagging, solar panels etc? Actually, Tony did put his name to a domestic solar panel grant a few years ago, but he soon lost interest and the grant has since been slashed. Maybe he has been planning a grant for domestic nuclear installations instead.

The packs in themselves are ultimately a pretty good idea. There is too much about the way they are being brought in, however, that reminds you that this is the same crowd that brought you rural farm payments and the increasingly wayward tax credits scheme. Thank God these are the people who have opted to set up and run a national ID register. Just imagine what chaos there would be otherwise.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Does David Milliband have a brother called Steve?

[webofevil.livejournal.com]

Hmm. It’s Miliband with one ‘l’, and the only reference (http://www.foodanddrinkeurope.com/news/ng.asp?n=73962-tesco-airfreighting-greenhouse) I can find is to a Stephen Miliband as being “Environment Secretary”, which suggests that foodanddrinkeurope.com has an approach to fact-checking to rival Sky’s. So if he has, I don’t think he’s in politics.

Come on, parliamentary types, prove me wrong!

[g0ldt00th.livejournal.com]

He's a joker, he's a smoker, he's a midnight toker.

This is a joke I have been unsuccessfully slogging at friends, family and anyone in the general vicinity for a long time.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes come on, keep up.