Letters: It can’t be right that energy profits soar while customers worry about their bills

SIR – The defences of energy companies’ latest profits (Letters, February 17) are unlikely to convince the general public.

People from all walks of life are struggling to pay their bills and put food on the table. And that’s before prices go up again in April.

Lesley Peters
Lamberhurst, Kent

SIR – It is preposterous that energy companies are making huge profits while individuals and businesses are suffering from their high prices. The Government needs to do something.

Martin Moyes
Holt, Wiltshire

SIR – Thomas Harrison (Letters, February 16) has been struggling to get a refund from Scottish Power.

Perhaps he should try my supplier. I have just had a communication from EDF Energy insisting on giving me a refund of £356 because my account is in credit, while at the same time increasing my monthly direct debit from £100 to £119.

Elaine Winter
Whyteleafe, Surrey

SIR – Thomas Harrison’s experience reminded me of when I was in the same position with Iberia. It promised me a refund of £1,200, which never materialised. Each time I telephoned I was simply assured that the refund had been made, and I could never get higher up the tree to talk to a manager.

Three months later, a friend helped me sue Iberia online for the princely sum of £50. Within 24 hours, I had my full refund.

Sarah Strutt
Stutton, Suffolk

SIR – The UK needs more affordable, clean, secure energy sources to lower household bills and meet our climate goals. But it is increasingly evident that biomass power – burning wood pellets for electricity – does not meet these objectives, while also exacerbating the supply and demand imbalance for timber faced by UK industry, including the wood panel sector.

New wind and solar projects are now two times cheaper than biomass – and the potential of fixed and floating offshore projects in the North and Celtic seas is tremendous. Experts are questioning biomass’s carbon-neutral status, due to doubts about how quickly new tree planting can negate the carbon dioxide emitted by burning wood residues. It also currently requires importing wood pellets, which sends vast subsidies overseas, risks fuelling deforestation and generates significant processing and transport emissions.

The next generation of biomass power stations – with carbon capture and storage attached – could cost taxpayers more than £30 billion, equivalent to £500 per person. Carbon can be sequestered more cheaply through afforestation and the use of timber in furniture and construction. Given the costs and environmental concerns, we urge ministers not to hand out generous new biomass subsidies.

Selaine Saxby MP (Con)
Sir Peter Bottomley MP (Con)
Earl of Caithness (Con)
Sally-Ann Hart MP (Con)
Sir Oliver Heald MP (Con)
Pauline Latham MP (Con)
Derek Thomas MP (Con)
Lord Randall (Con)
Lord Robathan (Con)
Sir Roger Gale MP (Con)
London SW1

Sturgeon’s skill

SIR – I have always been in thrall to the political skills of Nicola Sturgeon (Letters, February 17).

I have been a terrified admirer of her. Terrified, because she has been a convincing separatist, and I oppose her cause completely; an admirer, because during her reign she was head and shoulders above our lacklustre prime ministers in quality, intelligence, focus and, until very recently, political nous.

All political careers end in failure: that is the unavoidable nature of the game. But Ms Sturgeon has been an awesome player.

Kevin Liles
Southampton

End-of-life choice

SIR – Dame Prue Leith and Danny Kruger (Comment, February 17), her MP son, are on opposite sides of the assisted dying debate, but it’s Mr Kruger who is out of line with public opinion. An overwhelming majority want to see assisted dying made legal in Britain.

What is it that MPs are so afraid of? Countries such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Spain and Austria have robust safeguards that protect the vulnerable and command public confidence. What’s so uniquely terrible about England and Wales that we can’t follow their example, but have instead a blanket ban on compassionate end-of-life choice?

We should have a citizens’ assembly here, as they do in France, and trust Parliament and the NHS to do the right thing and reduce suffering.

Claire Macdonald
Alvediston, Wiltshire

Attack on landlords

SIR – It is no surprise that landlords are leaving the private rented sector (Leading Article, February 17).

The Government’s actions imply that private landlords are exploitative and more interested in profit than providing tenants with good-quality accommodation at a fair price.

While there will always be such cases, strict regulation, including licensing, is driving rogue landlords from the market. Meanwhile, however, thousands of decent landlords are selling up, and the reasons are clear: they are taxed on turnover, not profit, and are unable to claim tax relief on rising mortgage interest and other expenses. Punitive changes to capital gains tax and new, open-ended tenancy agreements have compounded the problem.

This mounting chaos in the private rental sector is the result of a Conservative government failing to understand the basic principles of supply and demand.

John Barker
Prestbury, Cheshire

Costly probate delays

SIR – Margaret Clark’s letter (February 16) on the long and thoroughly indefensible delays in the probate process struck a chord with me.

I have now been waiting three months for probate to be granted on my late father’s estate. Meanwhile, with inflation running in excess of 10 per cent, the value of the estate has eroded in real terms by several thousand pounds, and each passing day costs the beneficiaries an additional £34.

Mark Rushton
Rushden, Northamptonshire

SIR – Margaret Clark has been told that the probate process will take at least 16 weeks.

My sister and I have just been granted probate on my late father’s estate after a wait of 15 months. In addition, I have been told that if you try telephoning the probate office, you can expect to wait over an hour for a reply. My sister did this but they would not speak to her, even though she is an executor for my father’s estate.

Dr Tim Cantor
Tunbridge Wells, Kent

To butter or not to butter: on sandwich rules

SIR – James Brosnan (Letters, February 16) is absolutely right in spreading butter on only one half of a sandwich.

I follow other strict rules when making sandwiches. For instance: egg mayonnaise and cress should have no butter and be on granary bread, with copious amounts of black pepper. Ham should always be on brown bread, with butter and mustard on one side, and cucumber and mustard on top. Cream cheese and cucumber should always be on white bread – no butter but thinly sliced, peeled cucumber, with a dash of salt and cider vinegar.

Sandra Pearce
Downderry, Cornwall

SIR – Butter on only one slice of bread? I’ve never heard the like.

It’s good for the waistline, perhaps, and butter is expensive these days, but I’d rather not have a sandwich if I’m going to be short-changed on it.

Katherine Simcock
Leek, Staffordshire

SIR – Butter in a sandwich acts as a barrier between bread and filling. Imagine a tomato sandwich with no butter. The bread would be soggy and fall apart.

Peter Mylam
Great Bromley, Essex

SIR – James Brosnan has overlooked the obvious answer to the buttering question: neither side of the sandwich should be buttered.

The “other” slice should be slathered in mayonnaise. It completes the sandwich perfectly.

Mark Lanyon
Chedworth Laines, Gloucestershire

‘Dangerous’ books

SIR – I studied English at Cambridge from 1969 to 1972 and read many of the texts on which Oxford academics are now placing “trigger warnings” (report, February 17).

What is the use of such warnings and why are they thought necessary? And if a student were so alarmed as to conclude that he ought not read a work for fear of what psychological (or other) harm might result, what would those academics advise him to do?

What is it that today’s students need to be protected from, especially those who have grown up playing violent video games and watching no less violent movies?

Maurice West
Shirley, Surrey

The first snowdrops

SIR – I agree with Paul French (Letters, February 17) that the wild snowdrop is the first harbinger of spring, though I would add hazel catkins as a joint first.

However, the snowdrop was probably introduced to this country in the 16th century, rather than the 1850s. Carpets of them grew in monastic gardens and were known – as they still are in some areas – as Candlemas bells.

Miranda Gudenian
Yarcombe, Devon

SIR – I saw the first snowdrops in flower this year on January 7. As always, the line from Cicely Mary Barker’s delightful Flower Fairies series came to mind: “The fair maids of February stand in the snow.”

Wendy Farrington
Kendal, Cumbria

Carspotting

SIR – In the 1990s I wanted a BMW but the only one I could find was yellow (Letters, February 16). I took a friend to reassure me that it was not too garish.

Some months later, after an evening out, we couldn’t find my car in a multi-storey carpark. I said that it shouldn’t be too hard, due to its colour. Surprised, he replied that it was dark red. He was colour blind.

Peter Fineman
Mere, Wiltshire

SIR – In the 1970s my father, who was completely uninterested in cars, purchased a new Austin Maxi. When asked about his preferred colour, he replied: “Mud-coloured, please.”

The salesman spread out his sheet of colour swatches and my father selected the muddiest colour he could find, only to be told: “Ah yes, sir, we call that ‘Champagne’.”

Peter Granger
Milland, West Sussex

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