Stop implying it's not so bad now because you grew up with no central heating and scraped ice off the windows.

[flashbac]

FFS

I also had no central heating in the house as a kid. There was a hole under the bathtub that cats would use to come in while you were freezing arse off on the loo. It was bloody grim. I don't wish it on anybody. People shouldn't have to be uncomfortable in their own bleeding homes for goodness sakes. It shouldn't be happening in this day and age. Stop defending it.

Why?

People are pointing out that for 1000s of years the human race has not lived in lived homes which had all the rooms heated to at least 19°C.

I was one of them until the mid 1980s. I wasn't used to anything else so I didn't miss it. They are just providing a counter balance to all the catastrophising.

I have family in a hot country and they think a warm house is intolerable, even on a cooler day.

@SamphiretheStickerist ... on BT landlines, it wont happen, they do not know who has copper wired burglar alarms or who uses landline medical devices and in many cases the people with them have zero idea how to tell BT that they have and even when they do, BT don't have a solution that works during a power cut... they originally planned on a battery powered system that runs for a few hours but its not long enough.

So copper lines, powered from the exchange will still be here for quite sometime to come.

@amicissimma

Why?

People are pointing out that for 1000s of years the human race has not lived in lived homes which had all the rooms heated to at least 19°C.

I was one of them until the mid 1980s. I wasn't used to anything else so I didn't miss it. They are just providing a counter balance to all the catastrophising.

I have family in a hot country and they think a warm house is intolerable, even on a cooler day.

For 1000s of years people also died in their 30s or 40s... whats your point?

If your a low earner or someone on a fixed low income, 50 or 60 extra a month is totally unaffordable, add in inflation at 8% plus and wages and benefits rising at 0 to 3%

So (unless you have no empathy at all/vote Tory) its easy to why millions are extremely worried.

Oh look at all of us getting muddled about what people are literally saying, so dense we don’t know how to wear layers or use hot water bottles when it’s cold.

You can come on this thread all you like and say it’s not being said - but there have been plenty others where people are throwing out the ‘never did us any harm’ rhetoric.

We’re living in 2022. There is no excuse for fuel poverty.

I loved the weekend mum announced it was time to get the flannelette sheets on!

I'm hanging out for when it's cold enough to put my flannelette sheets on the bed (in the southern hemisphere).

We were probably more fortunate than some, the living room was always warm (although you'd still need a warm jumper). We didn't live uncomfortably, we just had different ways of keeping warm. It is bonkers the way some people heat their homes so they can wear summer clothes or use the same duvet all year round.

I agree it is bonkers, not to mention wasteful to heat homes like that. As for people going on about putting coats on the bed for warmth - bedding has changed a lot since then. I've never had to put a coat on a bed in my life - I have a duvet, hot water bottles, other people have electric blankets. The bedroom does not need to be heated!!

@Alexandra2001 you’re wrong. They're already doing it. It’s being done UK wide before 2025, just over two and a half years. They’re not checking first. It’s switched off and, if you don’t have broadband, you must then get package, people in my county have been left stranded. Including disabled. With no means to access help at all.

They’ve paused shutting people off, supposedly, BUT the same article says it’s gone BY 2025. For everyone regardless of provider. It’s April 2022. People are still being charged ‘line rental’ even when cut off.

@Alexandra2001 I tried to find the announcement but the mp who was campaigning against it has removed the link after I and others pointed out their ‘victory’ wasn’t what the article heading implied e.g. implied they were stopping doing it and researching into impact on rural communities when the same article stated they were going ahead and no one would have landline by 2025.

You dont get it Internet is a necessity these days mobile phones are necessity you cannot access your benefits without those they will sanction you for everything

Nowhere in my post, which you were quoting, did I mention the Internet. I was talking about people not wanting to do anying to help themselves with keeping warm in winter, but instead thinking it is perfectly acceptable to have a whole house warm enough to dress in summer clothes all year around. God forbid anyone should actually dress for the time of year!!!

@Becca19962014 BT cannot remove access to medical call alarms without replacing it with something else - that is equally as reliable in a severe power cut, Loads of rural areas have zero or poor signal and there is no easy workaround for that!
So i suggest that their temporary pause will be for far far longer.

Imagine the reputational damage should someone die as a result of their actions! not too mention any legal recourse, plus the needless death of the person involved !

Ofcom have already told BT its not good enough, so BT will need to have IP convertors that hook into the IP exchanges, which will then give a traditional landline to a customer, powered from the exchange as before but using the new tech BT want.

Thats used by 1000s of companies (with their own phone systems) who have specific need for a landline such as a lift phone or in areas where its not practical to install cat 5/6 cabling.

@picklemewalnuts

Sometimes when people say this, they don't mean 'Stop whining'. They mean- it sucks but it was normal 40 years ago. We all knew how to layer clothes and use hot water bottles. It's survivable. Chilblains were normal. We've become used to a very comfortable way of living, but we can manage being less comfortable.

Some younger folk think it's uniquely, unreasonably awful, and don't have the old fashioned skills of preserving heat indoors. Us oldies can share from our youth, in a blitz spirit fashion.

I didn't live in a house with central heating until 2005!

Honestly, it never bothered me growing up, if it was a case of my parents not being able to afford heating then I certainly didn't know.

No, it not right that we are in this situation, but there are ways to help cope with it that sometimes people don't always know. People sharing ways that they kept warm might help someone else.

@Alexandra2001 they’re already doing it. It’s appalling. Vulnerable people in my county have been left with nothing after being disconnected and told to ‘simply’ get a broadband package installed - totally ignoring that in rural parts such as where I am the only option, literally for many is landline. The recent storms meant people elsewhere, bluntly in more important affluent areas, were effected due to power cuts which left them without access and, an announcement was then made on behalf of all suppliers, so not just BT, that they would ‘pause’ the rollout.

BUT

The published document still said everyone would have it removed before 2025 so people are to ‘prepare’. Millions has been spent on improving signals for mobiles where I am for well over a decade, still mostly only 2g - I was kidding about my radio being bbc radio Cymru (on a strong signal day), rest of the time all I get is taxis and emergency services only.

The document has now been removed and I’ve been in contact with the MPs who posted it to say they they must get clarification because not only does their posted reply state in the first paragraph they’re pausing it, the rest says they aren’t, and parts of the country they’re just going to continue doing it regardless.

And people have already died, hence the fight by various MPs in rural communities about it. It’s something that’s not hitting the news nationally.

If I was optimistic I’d say the article has been pulled because they are listening. But I’m not. They’ll republish. They’ve no idea about rural needs. But then very few outside of rural communities actually do.

*wasnt kidding

My mum used to get chilblains from putting the washing out. That was the 80s.

I started getting reynauds when I wasabout 10. Toes, fingers, nipples. I remember clinging to a radiator to try and defrost. Walking into a supermarket chill section can bring it on. All the layers in my wardrobe won't fix it. I need to feel warmth. I also appear to be developing arthritis or rheumatism in my hands. They're sore, swollen and painful when I wake up. Again, putting extra clothes on doesn't help.

I'm glad there are lots of people out there who can cope with the cold. I can go running in minus temperatures with only running leggings and a base layer. But I cannot sit in a cold house for long, before I am in pain.

I grew up in a council house with no central heating and single paned windows. I'm much better off nowadays but still waste little and work from home with no heating on all day.

I genuinely feel for people suffering from fuel poverty but there's a middle ground between having just enough and having way too much.

Personal comfort and the expectation that it's an entitlement is a dangerous path. It's the reason why gas boilers are being banned very soon. We simply cannot afford to have heating on 24/7 and walk around in tee shirts all day in winter.

Gas, coal and other fuels will run out and sadly technology has lagged while easy gas has been relatively abundant.

We're lucky we're not reliant on Russian gas but people in Germany definitely won't be saying that comfort is a basic necessity if Putin turns off the tap.

I ahve a colleague who lives in a house with his elderly disabled mum and brother out in the sticks and has no central heating. They have a coal fire. Landlord refuses to put heating in and agrees in return not to put the rent up. I was shocked when I found this out recently.

Im 37and have never lived with central heating except for a couple of temporary living situations in my early 20s.
My electric heating (one heater upstairs, one downstairs) is off until the clocks change again in October.
I know how to layer and make a hot water bottle.
I know I can't afford to keep my home as warm as I would like it because it's an old inefficient house and im a single parent on a low wage.
My hot water heater has gone off aswel now because I cannot afford to pay any more than I already do.
I've not got a gym membership or holidays or subscriptions I can cut back on.
I work hard and I'm looking for better paid jobs but better pay should mean better living, it won't, it will just fill the gap.
I would never vote tory, the lack of a viable opposition is very noticeable to the working people who should have someone fighting our corner, there is nobody there.

I wouldn't go back to being cold for anything, I'd hate it so much. It was bad enough when I was a child, hating to leave the warmth of the fireplace to go upstairs to the loo. No - thank - you.

I was one of those kids, no central heating or double glazing but the funny thing is I can never remember being cold at home. We first got central heating when I was 9 & we didn't get double glazing until I was well in to my teens. This government is wanting to send us back to the 1970's, maybe we should give them what they want, strikes, power cuts, a 3 day week, bring the country to a standstill, stop the money rolling in to the Government purse & see what that does to them.

This government is wanting to send us back to the 1970's

It's a fuel crisis that is hitting all of Europe. What it has in common with the 1970s is that was when there was last a global fuel crisis.

Also in the 70s, there were multiple general elections in a very short time of each other. And during that decade there was no solution

I started getting reynauds when I wasabout 10. Toes, fingers, nipples. I remember clinging to a radiator to try and defrost. Walking into a supermarket chill section can bring it on. All the layers in my wardrobe won't fix it. I need to feel warmth. I also appear to be developing arthritis or rheumatism in my hands. They're sore, swollen and painful when I wake up. Again, putting extra clothes on doesn't help

Me too @Thegiantofillinois. My fingers are so swollen and painful, some days I can barely type (necessary for work!) My home office is north-facing, gets no sun at all, is always so cold. I am currently wearing two sweaters, a base layer, leggings under fleece tracksuit bottoms, three pairs of thick wool socks and a scarf, and have a blanket with a hot water bottle on my lap. My hands are still icy. It's really miserable some days.

(On a side note, great name - are you an Andrew Bird or Handsome Family fan? )

I wonder if we burned more calories to keep warm back in the day??

Totally agree. I grew up in the nineties and it was so cold in our house before we got central heating. I used to dread getting out of bed in the morning. Just because it used to be like it then doesn’t make it fine now.

@Babyroobs

I ahve a colleague who lives in a house with his elderly disabled mum and brother out in the sticks and has no central heating. They have a coal fire. Landlord refuses to put heating in and agrees in return not to put the rent up. I was shocked when I found this out recently.

Can they get any help getting central heating? There were schemes, we had an old boiler and got a new one fitted free as DH is disabled. If they could get it for free I'm sure the landlord would agree as it is improving his property.

The scheme might have ended as this was about 12 years ago, might have been 15.

Being cold is really hard for the disabled.