If you remember my blog on 25th July where a number of local activists sent letters to Chris Hughes who is the Energy and Climate Change Secretary re DAB Radio Energy and Cost. Well we all received the same reply from the Department of Energy & Climate Change, well for what's its worth, here it is;
Thank you for your letter dated 9 July to Chris Huhne and your comments on DAB Radios and climate change. I have been asked to reply and apologise for the lengthy delay in doing so.
This government is committed to making the urgent decisions needed on energy and climate change. The Prime Minister has publicly stated that he wants to make this the greenest government ever'. Climate change is the biggest challenge we face, and the time we have to address it is short. But it also represents a real opportunity to drive forward innovation, job creation and competitiveness, supporting the UK economy while playing our full part in tackling global climate change.
You may wish to keep an eye on our website (www.decc.gov.uk) which is regularly updated with policy developments.
It also contains details of our open consultations to which you are welcome to contribute your views. The latest and most comprehensive expression on the Government's agenda, is set out in the Annual Energy Statement, which our Secretary of State, Chris Huhne, presented to Parliament on 27 July, details of which can be found at: http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/contentlcms/whatwedo/uksupply/aes/aes.aspx
I hope that you find this helpful.
Yours sincerely
Matt Valentine
DECC Correspondence Unit
As you can see Matt Valentine totally ignored the contents of the letters, so one of our members has sent the letter below in reply to Matt. I think it speaks for itself;
Dear Mr.Valentine
DAB Radio and Climate Change Action Contradictions
Thank you for your letter, dated August 2010, replying to mine with the above heading, which was addressed to Chris Huhne MP, and dated 9th July.
I must say that I am very disappointed that you have made no attempt whatsoever to answer any of my questions, or to discuss any of the points that I made about adverse effects on climate change in my letter. Nothing you have said alters my conviction that this DAB radio conversion was the last government's response to pressures from the businesses and industries that are involved and that will benefit hugely from it. Nor does it ease my serious doubt that any adverse impacts on climate change were even remotely considered by that previous government.
Quite naturally, because of the green claims by both the Prime Minister David Cameron and his Deputy Nick Clegg, and also by the DECC Secretary of State Chris Huhne, I did expect much better from this new Coalition government. Yet, while this DAB radio changeover will have some very obvious links to job creation that you refer to, it most certainly not green jobs that are going to be created by it!
I hereby, once again, accuse the DECC of supporting a policy that is going to waste energy and accelerate climate change, not slow it down.
How can the DECC, possibly justify doing this? Is job creation and supporting the economy always going to win over climate change action?
Please tell me how this is going to save any energy whatsoever, even over the longer term, as compared with the sum total of all the energy that will be consumed in making this changeover, plus all the energy that will be wasted – the energy that was invested in making the analogue radios.
Please tell me how this is going help us play our part to stop global climate change. If you can offer me one shred of evidence or any persuasive argument that will prove me wrong I would be quite pleased to hear from you again.
I would be even more pleased to receive the courtesy of a more detailed reply from the actual gentleman that I took considerable trouble to write to in the first place, rather than have my letter discarded into the "distraction therapy unit" that you appear to be working in. This seems to be incapable of doing much more than issue stock phrases of reassurance to people's letters that the new minister finds too awkward for him to reply to himself.
I shall look at the www.decc.gov.uk website, and I will respond to any open consultations. However, in my experience, these are very often just a black hole into which concerned people take a lot of trouble to pour out their hearts, with their serious concerns and even constructive suggestions - yet where any unwelcome feedback is conveniently lost forever.
Most government consultations seem to me to exist to justify the claim to having had one.
Yours sincerely
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In addition a letter has been send to our local MP Dr Phillip Lee who is Chairman of the All Party Committee on the Environment and is also a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee. We await his reply to, lets hope he actually reads the letter.
Showing posts with label Chris Huhne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chris Huhne. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 September 2010
Sunday, 25 July 2010
DAB Radio energy & cost
I sent the the letter to Chris Huhne who is the Energy and Climate Change Secretary as I am concerned about a number of issue related to the switch off of the anologe signal for radio broadcasts.
Dear Mr Huhne,
DAB Radio Energy, cost and Climate Change
I was and am very pleased that you are the coalitions Energy and Climate Change Secretary and I was very impressed when I met you at the Southern Conference in Eastleigh and you spoke to me about the BNP and I was very pleased with your support for Professor David Nutt. But now you’re in government there is something I think you could act on quite easily.
I wish to bring to your attention my concern with DAB Radio and Energry Management. Firstly not only is the replacement of the current FM radios a concern but also the worry that DAB radio themselves many have to be replaced within a few years because of the new AAC+ audio codec, and existing stations that use the old MP2 format will probably be switched off completely in the UK in around 7-8 years' time.
All this replacement of radios tends to use materials and energy. Surely we should not be forcing people to throw away their old radios.
It is a known fact that DAB radios tend to consume more electricity than old-fashioned analogue one although this is improving I doubt they will ever use as little power as current analogue radios.
Also as Liberals I do not believe it is right to force people to give something up that works perfectly well. I myself like to use a small MW/FM radio at football games and I cannot find a DAB radio that functions this way.
I do not understand how this fits in with the Lib-dem’s environmental policies of greening our economy and tackling climate change or indeed the Conservative Green pledges. Is this not another piece of Big government Labour that needs to be scrapped. If not can this not be greatly delayed or put on
Of course the other issue is cost imagine how many voters particularly some older voters will be happy to hear that we are not spending all this money on digital radio antennas and adverts or indeed the saving they will make by not having to buy one. It would demonstrate good Liberal values and also not force the poorer people who pay the same money for DAB radios to buy them.
Please do write back to me and let me know your course of action as I will be publishing it on my Blog (www.bracknellblog.blogspot.com/).
Other past contributors to this blog have also written letters to Chris Huhne on this issue, the letter below is from Bill Bloggs;
I wish to protest in the strongest possible terms against the Coalition Government’s plan to force all UK residents to change over from Analogue to Digital radio.
First of all, there is the needless personal cost to each and every one of us in a period of recession, money that could be far better spent by us - e.g. home insulation.
Secondly, this will mean the scrapping (and the costly and extremely limited recovery of any useful raw materials by recycling under WEEE) of millions of perfectly good FM radios.
This will not only include the great many cheaper basic radios, but will range right on up to lots of very expensive Stereo outfits. It will also involve all CD players that are combined with FM radios, as well as all clock radios - and worse still, it will encompass all those radio receivers fitted in our cars and trucks as well!
Can you please consider in great detail the total carbon footprint of this proposed changeover, as compared with all of the perceived benefits?
Can you please list these benefits for me, in any respect, including any conceivable energy saving, climate change and any other environmental advantages that may be involved?
The way I see it, it is true to say that the only really tangible benefit is to the manufacturers and retailers of all this new radio receiving equipment!
Making all of this new equipment is going to not only consume a great deal of money that is in very short supply, but also needlessly consume a huge amount of precious energy, and use up a lot more increasingly scarce raw materials as well.
I really cannot see how this fits in with the Lib-dem’s environmental policies of greening our economy and tackling climate change.
It looks far more like a Tory policy, giving way to a big business lobby once again!
When you have reached the sensible and logical conclusion that I would expect from you, both as a Lib-Dem MP and the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, I trust that you will do all in your power to stop this enforced changeover going ahead..
IMHO, purchasing a DAB radio, in any shape or form, should be left as a free market choice by the consumer, when such a purchase is under their unpressurised, natural consideration.
Furthermore, from an Energy Saving and Climate Change Action perspective, wouldn’t you agree that, ideally, each and every one of these new DAB radios should be sold with a reminder that, if you are buying one solely to keep up with the latest technology, you are needlessly consuming precious energy and natural resources and adding to your personal carbon footprint?
I very much look forward to hearing from you in due course.
There are other letters but I think you get the idea. When we receive our replies I will post them here.
Dear Mr Huhne,
DAB Radio Energy, cost and Climate Change
I was and am very pleased that you are the coalitions Energy and Climate Change Secretary and I was very impressed when I met you at the Southern Conference in Eastleigh and you spoke to me about the BNP and I was very pleased with your support for Professor David Nutt. But now you’re in government there is something I think you could act on quite easily.
I wish to bring to your attention my concern with DAB Radio and Energry Management. Firstly not only is the replacement of the current FM radios a concern but also the worry that DAB radio themselves many have to be replaced within a few years because of the new AAC+ audio codec, and existing stations that use the old MP2 format will probably be switched off completely in the UK in around 7-8 years' time.
All this replacement of radios tends to use materials and energy. Surely we should not be forcing people to throw away their old radios.
It is a known fact that DAB radios tend to consume more electricity than old-fashioned analogue one although this is improving I doubt they will ever use as little power as current analogue radios.
Also as Liberals I do not believe it is right to force people to give something up that works perfectly well. I myself like to use a small MW/FM radio at football games and I cannot find a DAB radio that functions this way.
I do not understand how this fits in with the Lib-dem’s environmental policies of greening our economy and tackling climate change or indeed the Conservative Green pledges. Is this not another piece of Big government Labour that needs to be scrapped. If not can this not be greatly delayed or put on
Of course the other issue is cost imagine how many voters particularly some older voters will be happy to hear that we are not spending all this money on digital radio antennas and adverts or indeed the saving they will make by not having to buy one. It would demonstrate good Liberal values and also not force the poorer people who pay the same money for DAB radios to buy them.
Please do write back to me and let me know your course of action as I will be publishing it on my Blog (www.bracknellblog.blogspot.com/).
Other past contributors to this blog have also written letters to Chris Huhne on this issue, the letter below is from Bill Bloggs;
I wish to protest in the strongest possible terms against the Coalition Government’s plan to force all UK residents to change over from Analogue to Digital radio.
First of all, there is the needless personal cost to each and every one of us in a period of recession, money that could be far better spent by us - e.g. home insulation.
Secondly, this will mean the scrapping (and the costly and extremely limited recovery of any useful raw materials by recycling under WEEE) of millions of perfectly good FM radios.
This will not only include the great many cheaper basic radios, but will range right on up to lots of very expensive Stereo outfits. It will also involve all CD players that are combined with FM radios, as well as all clock radios - and worse still, it will encompass all those radio receivers fitted in our cars and trucks as well!
Can you please consider in great detail the total carbon footprint of this proposed changeover, as compared with all of the perceived benefits?
Can you please list these benefits for me, in any respect, including any conceivable energy saving, climate change and any other environmental advantages that may be involved?
The way I see it, it is true to say that the only really tangible benefit is to the manufacturers and retailers of all this new radio receiving equipment!
Making all of this new equipment is going to not only consume a great deal of money that is in very short supply, but also needlessly consume a huge amount of precious energy, and use up a lot more increasingly scarce raw materials as well.
I really cannot see how this fits in with the Lib-dem’s environmental policies of greening our economy and tackling climate change.
It looks far more like a Tory policy, giving way to a big business lobby once again!
When you have reached the sensible and logical conclusion that I would expect from you, both as a Lib-Dem MP and the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, I trust that you will do all in your power to stop this enforced changeover going ahead..
IMHO, purchasing a DAB radio, in any shape or form, should be left as a free market choice by the consumer, when such a purchase is under their unpressurised, natural consideration.
Furthermore, from an Energy Saving and Climate Change Action perspective, wouldn’t you agree that, ideally, each and every one of these new DAB radios should be sold with a reminder that, if you are buying one solely to keep up with the latest technology, you are needlessly consuming precious energy and natural resources and adding to your personal carbon footprint?
I very much look forward to hearing from you in due course.
There are other letters but I think you get the idea. When we receive our replies I will post them here.
Monday, 21 June 2010
OH NO! Chris Huhne has a Bisexual Lover and she wears Doc Martens!
How is this news, the Daily Mail has the headline Chris Huhne's bisexual lover: Life and very different loves of the PR girl in Doc Martens
What! Ok so a politician has had an affair. Big deal. I couldn't care if a politician or a celebrity has had an affair. It's not really my business but only the busniess of those involved. But what are the Daily Mail doing. This article is full of examples of gay marriages and a anti gay or bisexual slant.
Why do they bother to highlight that Carina Trimingham has 'boyish cropped, spiky haircut and love of Dr Marten boots and jeans' What they hell is their problem!
Oh no look she is a 'female friend at the civil partnership ceremony of Brian Paddick'.
Give me a break this is not reporting on an affair but has an anti gay slant to make the Liberal Democrats appear to be some sort of sex mad and oh no bisexual crazed party. Well I have news for you, The Lib dems like all other political partys have people who are Bisexual and Gay and believe it or not straight. So what!
Personally I'm fed up with Daily Mail agendas
What! Ok so a politician has had an affair. Big deal. I couldn't care if a politician or a celebrity has had an affair. It's not really my business but only the busniess of those involved. But what are the Daily Mail doing. This article is full of examples of gay marriages and a anti gay or bisexual slant.
Why do they bother to highlight that Carina Trimingham has 'boyish cropped, spiky haircut and love of Dr Marten boots and jeans' What they hell is their problem!
Oh no look she is a 'female friend at the civil partnership ceremony of Brian Paddick'.
Give me a break this is not reporting on an affair but has an anti gay slant to make the Liberal Democrats appear to be some sort of sex mad and oh no bisexual crazed party. Well I have news for you, The Lib dems like all other political partys have people who are Bisexual and Gay and believe it or not straight. So what!
Personally I'm fed up with Daily Mail agendas
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