Miliband’s suggestions to pubs clinging on for dear life: switch off your fridges overnight, serve warmer beer, and turn off the ovens. And the taxpayer has coughed up £350,000 to produce these measures…
DESNZ pumped that cash into Zero Carbon Services’ ‘energy and carbon reduction tool’ which was rolled out to 525 pubs, restaurants, and hotels during a year-long trial. The government claims it “delivered behavioural change focused energy saving plans tailored to participants through the digital tool, providing real-time alerts to reduce unnecessary electricity use”. Never mind the North Sea, never mind cutting VAT on energy bills, just serve warmer pints…
In Henry Mance’s piece today for the FT, lunching with Nigel Farage:
“Splendido!” Farage says, when the drinks arrive; I suppose it’s a step to European reconciliation. We clink glasses, and he lights the first of two back-to-back Benson & Hedges. A few minutes later, we’re back downstairs. “Are you drinking? Good.” He orders a glass of Sauvignon blanc for each of us — not a bottle, “because it’s Lent” — followed by a bottle of claret, to have with our meal. They say Farage drinks less than he used to. They say a lot of things.”