Re: Blitz Spirit : Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:12 am  

Given the ridiculous increases in energy bills over the last few years damn right I would want compensation if the service that I had paid an extortionate amount of money for was not provided.

Re: Blitz Spirit : Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:50 am  

dr_feelgood wrote:

Given the ridiculous increases in energy bills over the last few years damn right I would want compensation if the service that I had paid an extortionate amount of money for was not provided.

On the other hand if you've not been able to use any electricity for five days then you won't have been charged for any either, the only compensation you should be "entitled" to is five days worth of any standing charges, which is going to be pretty feeble.

Re: Blitz Spirit : Wed Jan 01, 2014 2:22 pm  

Compensation would also need to take in to account any losses or expenditure incurred due to the energy company failing to provide the service they are being paid for e.g freezer full of food, stay in a hotel outside the affected area. It's not as if the energy companies can't afford it.

Re: Blitz Spirit : Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:37 pm  

dr_feelgood wrote:

Compensation would also need to take in to account any losses or expenditure incurred due to the energy company failing to provide the service they are being paid for e.g freezer full of food, stay in a hotel outside the affected area. It's not as if the energy companies can't afford it.

And how much compo would a grasping individual from Wigan expect for a freezer full of pies? let me briefly shine a light into your murky world......

There is a certain level of Service you can expect from your Supplier, and when they are a fault, for instance digging a trench up your street and the numpty in the high viz rips up your electricity cable/water pipe/gas main, then obviously all costs in the repair should be borne by the appropiate Contractor, and possibly a small amount of compensation offered as well as an apology.

Where the Guaranteed Standards don't apply:

There are some exceptions to the Guaranteed Standards compensation schemes. For example, the company may not have to make a compensation payment for any of the following reasons:

severe weather makes it impossible to restore the supply
strikes or industrial action
you’re out when the energy company visits and you knew they were coming
you cancel an appointment.

Common sense really......

Re: Blitz Spirit : Wed Jan 01, 2014 4:18 pm  

dr_feelgood wrote:

Compensation would also need to take in to account any losses or expenditure incurred due to the energy company failing to provide the service they are being paid for e.g freezer full of food, stay in a hotel outside the affected area. It's not as if the energy companies can't afford it.

As far as the freezer is concerned you can bet your last pound that the power supplier would refer you to your own home insurers and if you suddenly decided for yourself to pack up and go stay in a hotel just because there was no electricity at your home through days where the temperature never dropped below a balmy 5 degrees then again you'd have to have a damn good reason for having done so before their insurers would cough up.

I used to know someone who was a kidney patient and did self dialysis at home - his whole street was on a priority list because of him and on a couple of occasions when they wanted to switch the power off for maintenance they had to come and ask him first

Re: Blitz Spirit : Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:24 pm  

The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes.

So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?

Re: Blitz Spirit : Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:32 pm  

Mintball wrote:

The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes.

So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?

Plus what was the alternative during the Blitz? Walk out of the shelter and ask the Germans for compensation?

The last time we extracted compensation from Germany it didn't particularly help that much.

Re: Blitz Spirit : Thu Jan 02, 2014 8:35 pm  

Mintball wrote: The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing? Look at how the Daily Mail reported it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... pirit.html Loose women, looting and murder. Of course the Daily Mail ranks loose women as the main problem there.... Sexual desire, especially in women, was much intensified during the Blitz. A number of men complained to me about their wives making excessive demands, and I know of very many who were unfaithful to their husbands Disgraceful women wanting sex during the war. "Broken Britain" in a nutshell. Looting was the shameful antithesis of the Blitz spirit about which very little was reported at the time, so detrimental was it thought to be to the nation's morale - and it was widespread. 'I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941. Some looters were bomb-chasers: when a raid was on, they would converge on a target area and smash shop windows as the bombs fell and official attention was distracted and the streets empty. The Blitz, like the blackout, provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activities - in one case, a murder was passed off as a death in an air raid: pickpocketing was rife and racketeers charged exorbitant sums for 'reserving' a place in a shelter. People made false claims for the loss of ration books or ID cards, or said they had been bombed out when they hadn't: one Wandsworth man claimed to have been bombed out 19 times in five months before the authorities realised his game and he was sent to prison for three years in February 1941. Many looters were petty criminals who found the Blitz provided unprecedented opportunities. Others were in the right place at the right time, pouncing when they saw watches, jewellery, radios and cartons of cigarettes spilling out from the windows of a bombed shop. Sounds like August 2011 riots to me I wonder if these were a result of genuine concern about mass immigration?

Mintball wrote: The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing? Look at how the Daily Mail reported it: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... pirit.html Loose women, looting and murder. Of course the Daily Mail ranks loose women as the main problem there.... Sexual desire, especially in women, was much intensified during the Blitz. A number of men complained to me about their wives making excessive demands, and I know of very many who were unfaithful to their husbands Disgraceful women wanting sex during the war. "Broken Britain" in a nutshell. Looting was the shameful antithesis of the Blitz spirit about which very little was reported at the time, so detrimental was it thought to be to the nation's morale - and it was widespread. 'I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941. Some looters were bomb-chasers: when a raid was on, they would converge on a target area and smash shop windows as the bombs fell and official attention was distracted and the streets empty. The Blitz, like the blackout, provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activities - in one case, a murder was passed off as a death in an air raid: pickpocketing was rife and racketeers charged exorbitant sums for 'reserving' a place in a shelter. People made false claims for the loss of ration books or ID cards, or said they had been bombed out when they hadn't: one Wandsworth man claimed to have been bombed out 19 times in five months before the authorities realised his game and he was sent to prison for three years in February 1941. Many looters were petty criminals who found the Blitz provided unprecedented opportunities. Others were in the right place at the right time, pouncing when they saw watches, jewellery, radios and cartons of cigarettes spilling out from the windows of a bombed shop. Sounds like August 2011 riots to me I wonder if these were a result of genuine concern about mass immigration?

Re: Blitz Spirit : Fri Jan 03, 2014 9:31 am  

Mintball wrote:

The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes.

So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?

Romantic? Seriously? I'm sure you would agree, that only a complete cretin would suggest that the courage and resolve shown by a deeply traumatised civilian population, who were subjected to an unprecedented nightly campaign of terror, could be described in any way as "romantic"

I would have thought also, even the most blinkered can appreciate the difference between the stoic British response, and the entirely predictable antics of the criminal elements who took advantage of the situation.

Churchill called it right...."They have sewn the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind".... As Dresden typified later.

Re: Blitz Spirit : Fri Jan 03, 2014 10:31 am  

rumpelstiltskin wrote:

Romantic? Seriously? I'm sure you would agree, that only a complete cretin would suggest that the courage and resolve shown by a deeply traumatised civilian population, who were subjected to an unprecedented nightly campaign of terror, could be described in any way as "romantic".

You are aware that romantic doesn't just mean Mills & Boon?