The post you are reporting:
Ah...thats a nicely spun way of putting it Ray..when something goes down it looks like a cut to the person on the receiving end. For several years I got £250 Winter Fuel Allowance...this suddenly without any explanation became £200 this year. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck..then its a duck.
here is a section from the latest article in the Public Sector Executive on energy policy, or the lack of...
I put this up to highlight the obvious disarray in the Coalition in this arena. As can also be seen in Philips link. But which side of the argument is responsible for household increases?? Both claim it to be the other side.
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ENERGY BILL UNWORKABLE - says Tim Yeo
The Treasury has been accused of making the energy bill "unworkable" by the Commons Energy & Climate Change Select Committee and its Conservative chairman Tim Yeo MP.
The legislation would scrap systems of subsidy for large-scale renewable energy and encourage nuclear power through a new system of 'contracts for difference' - where companies would sign long-term agreements to supply and pay for low-carbon generation.
It is well-known that the DECC and energy secretary Ed Davey have been engaged in a long-running fight with the Treasury and chancellor George Osborne over energy policy and subsidies.
The energy committee has said the resulting legislation is over-complicated and that the proposed spending cap to limit green levies that can be passed onto consumers in energy bills could introduce an "unacceptable" level of risk to companies looking to invest.
Yeo has attacked the plans, which he said would create the risk of higher household bills, limit investment and reinforce the dominance of the 'Big 6' energy companies.
He asserted that the Treasury demanded changes to the bill to placate Tory backbenchers who oppose the construction of new windfarms in their constituencies. Major cuts to support for onshore wind would "cause serious damage to the industry," he said, highlighting that wind is the cheapest way to meet renewables targets.
Yeo said: "The Government is in danger of botching its plans to boost clean energy, because the Treasury is refusing to back new contracts to deliver investment in nuclear, wind, wave and carbon capture and storage."
In an interview with the BBC, he specifically blamed Tory backbenchers, saying: "Under the guise of reducing bills for consumers, the chancellor will actually be increasing consumers' bills. I don't know if the back-benchers realise this but surely the Treasury does - yet it keeps pressing on with an action that's clearly political to assuage MPs who don't like turbines in the countryside."
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Howard I think Mr Cameron has got away with his election pledge in that he hasnt cut Winter Fuel Allowance in the sense that he hasnt axed it. This was what people were worried about, but he said only recently that Winter Fuel Allowance was safe at PMQs. I often shout in his direction on the screen asking why he has cut the actual level...but I dont get an answer.
There are further grumblings afoot as we know, talks about about making it 'means tested'...which strikes me as a bad route to take. Nobody wants to have their right to it analyzed by a whippersnapper from some department or other.