SIR – We are in a desperate energy situation (Letters, January 2). Very shortly many will simply not be able to pay their massive fuel bills. This is made far worse by the Government’s energy policies, which take no account of hard realities.
The Government must without delay take the initiative with radical measures to address the crisis and not just stand back while disaster looms.
Bob Hart
Newark, Nottinghamshire
SIR – I suspect that the crisis in the cost of energy to every household and business in the country could prove to be this Government’s poll-tax saga.
Its fixation with green energy policy and its abject failure to secure long-term sensibly priced home-grown resources may well be its downfall.
David Crawshaw
Almondsbury, Gloucestershire
SIR – Representations to ministers about shale gas (Letters, January 2) have fallen on deaf ears, as the only voices that are heard are those of well-funded environmentalists.
One reason for the effective ban on shale gas is what is known as acoustic emission during the stimulation process. The traffic-light system, introduced to monitor nuisance, is based on the Richter scale, which is the wrong measurement for felt effects. The threshold set is 12 times lower than a quarry blasting limit and 30 times less than for some construction activities. Sir Ed Davey, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, boasted about his part in setting these ridiculously low limits.
Even if the Government decided to restart exploration and development of gas from shale rocks, it is unlikely that small gas companies and supporting service providers would be prepared to face more protest campaigns – with the constant abuse, serious threats to personnel, business disruption, damage to property, significant extra costs and bad publicity.
There is no place in a civilised society for the level of interference with legitimate business and the general public that we have seen by groups such as Extinction Rebellion. Laws relating to protest, trespass and human rights must change to allow development of shale gas to proceed.
John Beswick
Rothley, Leicestershire
SIR – Peter Williman (Letters, December 31) should challenge his energy supplier’s demand to double his direct debit. My neighbour, a pensioner, also had a notification that their monthly charge for electricity would go from £28 to £83, despite the letter also giving a quote for the next year of £360. After failing to convince the call handler of this mathematical nonsense, we resorted to haggling and settled at £35 per month.
My feeling is that energy companies are trying to recoup their losses by collecting extra cash from customers on the monthly direct debits and hoping that most will just accept it.
Susan Moden
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Tony Blair’s honour
SIR – Tony Blair knighted (report, January 1)? Can there be a more blatant case of rewarding failure?
Richard Freer
Ribaute-les-Tavernes, Gard, France
SIR – The honours system is, yet again, shown to be a disgrace.
Tony Blair has been made a Knight of the Garter just five years after the Iraq Inquiry found that, at the time of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Saddam Hussein did not pose an urgent threat to British interests, that intelligence on weapons of mass destruction was presented with unwarranted certainty, that peaceful alternatives had not been exhausted, that Britain and America had undermined the authority of the United Nations Security Council, that the process of identifying the legal basis was “far from satisfactory”, and that a war was unnecessary.
Mark Macauley
Warminster, Wiltshire
SIR – Tony Blair is the least deserving prime minister to be knighted.
We will never recover from the harm of devolution. Students are in huge debt as a result of tuition fees and the encouragement of youngsters to attend university rather than take apprenticeships. His reform of licensing laws has resulted in more antisocial and drunken violence. Selling gold reserves at a loss was hardly good economics.
All this even before considering his military intervention in the Middle East, which has left thousands dead or homeless and led to mass migration.
Clifford Baxter
Wareham, Dorset
SIR – Chris Whitty and Jonathan Van-Tam have saved lives, but this cannot be said of Tony Blair. I applaud knighthoods for the first two, and utterly deplore it for the latter.
Dorian Wood
Castle Cary, Somerset
SIR – Will the long delay in bestowing the honour of a knighthood on Tony Blair give hope to John Bercow?
Jonathan Mann
Gunnislake, Cornwall
Triumph adversity
SIR – Like Barrie Bain (Letters, January 1) I owned a Triumph Herald many decades ago. She was my first love. On cold winter nights I would keep her warm with an old mackintosh thrown over her engine under the bonnet.
Perhaps it was this that protected her from a thief one night. She was driven off our drive on to the road but steadfastly refused to go any further.
Robert T Brown
Crosby, Lancashire
SIR – While I agree with Barrie Bain that access to the engine of a Triumph Herald was made easy by the hinged front, there was one shortcoming.
A bump or pothole in the road could easily spring both locks, causing the whole front to lift. Braking only increased the problem, leading to a lack of visibility. In order to stop, I often steered with my left hand while leaning out and holding the bonnet down with my right hand.
Ruth Bennett
Southampton
SIR – In 1967, when posted to the British Embassy in Moscow, I imported a racing green Triumph Herald 12/50 with a sliding sunroof. To the best of my knowledge, this was the only one in the Soviet Union at the time, and was a curiosity to the citizens of Moscow.
They would gather round the car to examine it thoroughly. Without doubt, the British Herald was a far cry from the ubiquitous local Moskvitch.
Nigel Taylor
Thakeham, West Sussex
