Truss scraps energy saving campaign

[SilverGlitterBaubles]

So Liz Truss has scrapped a planned energy saving publicity campaign because it's against her ideology of 'it is not a nanny state' despite the possibility of rationing or blackouts not to mention sky high bills. Yesterday I was shopping and although it was a pretty mild lovely sunny day so many shops had heat blasting out over their open doorways in shops that were far too hot. It just seemed so unnecessarily wasteful. While I realise that we probably all know how to cut back, I cannot help but wouldn't a publicity campaign is actually a good idea to help households and businesses think about the how they use their energy - even for environmental reasons. I just cannot see the harm.

What do others think? Nanny state or not?

Everyone knows that they need to use less energy.
Due to climate change and cost.
I honestly don't see how wasting public money on a campaign will help.

Nannying. When people and businesses see their rising bills they'll start making changes themselves. Why should the government spend a fortune telling people the obvious?

Nannying was also my initial reaction however given what I have experienced this weekend, I am not so sure.

It’s high time people were enabled to be the adults they are and stopped needing the government to micromanage their lives.

Would a campaign stop shops? High costs and fines might

Reading what is your heating on threads I doubt a campaign would change much, people will just choose their preference

And awareness is very high already - maybe even higher due to no campaign as every one is talking about the topic now

People should be doing this off their own back. It doesn't take a genius to work out that if you leave all your lights and appliances on you will waste energy!!

I don’t understand why such a campaign would cost £15 million? Why not make a poster with some sensible bullet pointed suggestions and ask newsreaders and the papers to share it and MPs share it all over Twitter!?

Or people could just go here

energysavingtrust.org.uk/hub/quick-tips-to-save-energy/

Write to the retailer directly and ask them ti explain their policy on energy usage and ways they are taking responsibility for saving.

remind them that there could be 3 hour blackouts imposed this winter and they need to be socially responsible.

if they don't respond positively, post on their SM and publicly shame them.

this is a much more cost effective way of raising awareness than spending £MM of our tax money on yet another wasteful campaign.

I expect it comes down to getting an external Marketing Agency to run the campaign which is normally telephone numbers.

She could make a start by not actively misinforming people:

fullfact.org/economy/Truss-energy-price-guarantee/

When the pm says no household will spend more than £2500 on bills don't be surprised if it's not as obvious as you think that we need to cut back.

@daisychain01 Yes I do plan to do this for the stores concerned, which are pretty large brand names so I assume they have some sort of policy for such things.

I have made the point elsewhere.

There are people who still aren't aware of the best ways to save energy. There are effective tips and also ineffective tips.

There are also people who don't see the need to save energy. They can afford the costs of increased energy and can be wasteful.

Winter is coming. There is going to be competition for gas from other countries, driving the price of gas high. The taxpayer is subsidising this cost, through increased Government borrowing.

We could be encouraging people to reduce their energy use - which would be:

Good for consumers who may not be aware of where the energy is going

And

Good for the country as it reduces the amount we are subsidising in energy costs and this money could go into insulation and other energy saving initiatives which would further reduce people's bills. And future costs.

And

Potentially reduce the risk of blackouts as people would already be used to saving energy - as well as a requirement for businesses / councils etc to reduce the energy they use through things such as turning off office lights at night, lowering the temperature of hot water in public toilets etc

All different reasons for reducing the amount of energy we use. Some are motivations for the individual and some are societal motivations.