Monday, April 29, 2013

This is so Daily Mail: the spy in the fridge !

The Daily Mail has found a story that combines all its fear and hate and sheer bonkers fantasy in one go : the spy in the fridge.     The rant with pictures is about devices which would shut off domestic appliances automatically to avoid power cuts.  Here's how the Mail sees it and the true picture:

1) Daily Mail: EU Conspiracy
An " EU-wide body of energy regulators" has suggested it to the European Commission -oooooh, scary !  Foreigners telling us what to do !
True Picture
The European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) is the network of operators "cooperating for reliable operation, optimal management and sound technical evolution of the European electricity transmission system."  UK and European partners co-operating.

2) Daily Mail: Bloody green nutters and their wind farms
"...the European Union’s most influential energy bodies...are pushing for the move as green energy sources such as wind farms are less predictable than traditional power stations"
True picture
The problem isn't wind farms, it's sudden peaks in demand.  You can't ramp up supply quickly.  As the text says, in the last resort this would prevent large scale blackouts.   So obviously the Mail would prefer all electricity shut down rather than selected appliances

3) Daily Mail: They can stop you watching royal weddings !   
It's just not British.   They worked in a picture of the Duchess of Cambridge but even the Mail couldn't find a way to show her in a bikini this time.
True picture
Royal weddings don't cause sudden, unpredictable peaks.  That's what "outside sources" as the Mail calls them, i.e. Transmission System Operators plan for.

4) Daily Mail: Big brother to switch off your fridge
 (No, not the Bazalgette bollocks - I suspect the Mail rather likes that)

David Davis said: "There is a Big Brother element to this – and it also shows the energy suppliers passing down their incompetence to the customers. They should be supplying energy as customers need it, not the when they want to give it."
True picture
Ah, the old "predict and supply" policy.  The assumption that we are all entitled to all the energy we ever want, whatever the consequences for global warming and resource depletion. Oh I forgot, the Mail doesn't really believe in climate change.  It's a liberal conspiracy. Let Marcus deal with that.

(By the way, I don't read the Mail but thanks to Donnachadh McCarthy for the link.   For any one who hasn't seen it yet, the final word on the Mail is here.)

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