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Pan-utility

Low tech, no tech

05 February 2010

A recent poll by Lewis PR, a marketing and press agency, revealed that technological nous may not be us Britons'... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility

Climate protest:

27 January 2010

Snowmen congregate to complain about misleading reports claiming Himalayan glaciers are to disappear? All right, this was the best picture... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility

If it's not nailed down, some tit will take it

30 November 2009

Now here's a tale which maybe demonstrates Darwinian theory rather nicely. Or perhaps it suggests that birds can be right... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility, water

MPs start to talk a language everyone can understand

27 November 2009

What is Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition on? A colleague of the great man was at the Terrace Pavilion overlooking the... ...more »

Tags: politics, renewables

House humour

12 November 2009

The wit and wisdom of Lord Hunt (number 137 in an occasional series). Recently, during exchanges in the Upper Chamber,... ...more »

Tags: politics

Doorstep salesman caught bang to rights

30 October 2009

We all know that it's a competitive market out there on the doorstep as agents jostle for business, but it... ...more »

Tags: ScottishPower

Tory energy team creates sparks

14 October 2009

Last week, the Conservative Party conference in Manchester made strenuous efforts to display unity and not a smidgeon of triumphalism... ...more »

Tags: politics

Hutton plays it by the book

08 October 2009

Now we know that former business secretary John Hutton has decided not to become a senior adviser for EDF Energy,... ...more »

Tags: politics

That's no lady... that's an MP

22 September 2009

Don't you just love the self-deprecatory humour of our elected representatives? The great man muses thus after listening to Tim... ...more »

Tags: politics

A sticky situation for eco-activists

07 August 2009

There were red faces all round at the Department of Energy and Climate Change when a group of eco-activists glued... ...more »

Tags: protest

Get Connected ...

29 July 2009

Find out more about what's funny, curious or simply worth talking about in the utility industry in our magazine blog,... ...more »

Tags:

Don't spell it out for me...

24 July 2009

One of the first acts of Lewis Shand Smith, the new energy ombudsman over at The Ombudsman Service Ltd (TOSL),... ...more »

Tags:

Politicians? They're having a laugh

17 July 2009

The folks in the Palace of Varieties (aka Parliament) can be quite witty. Last week, Greg Clark MP, the Tory... ...more »

Tags: politics

He who laughs last...

10 July 2009

Liverpudlian comic Ken Dodd is still twirling his tickling sticks several decades after last appearing on TV with his Diddy... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility

Not quite long enough, m'lud

19 June 2009

There has been disappointment in the Lords, and not because the prime minister is threatening to take out the hereditary... ...more »

Tags: policy

Getting hot under the collar about cooling towers

12 June 2009

Writer and commentator Germaine Greer has been waxing lyrical about cooling towers. Well, sort of. In her regular column in... ...more »

Tags: electricity, pan-utility

Fun run

05 June 2009

What can the great man say when confronted with the news that Southern Water's mascot Ollie the Otter has been... ...more »

Tags: Southern Water

Reavailable due to time-wasters...

05 June 2009

earlier this year the derelict farmhouse made famous in the cult film Withnail and I was auctioned off to a... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility

Where's this?

01 June 2009

Utility Week's fun competition to test your knowledge of utility sites has now closed. Only four people correctly identified all... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility

Put your best foot forward...

22 May 2009

Last weekend a crack team from Utility Week braved the elements to take part in the annual Walk the Wight... ...more »

Tags: charity

It's amazing what you can claim in expenses

15 May 2009

Absolutely no doubt about it, the current revelations about MPs' expenses are certainly an eye-opener. Disconnector has particularly enjoyed the... ...more »

Tags: policy

Taxing issues

01 May 2009

Talking of the folding stuff, Disconnector wonders just how miffed all those senior utility bods and chief executives are now... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility

Hail Sir Michael the multi-tasker

03 April 2009

This week, ministers confirmed that Sir Michael Pitt has been offered and has accepted the role of first chairman of... ...more »

Tags: planning

Where are they now, where were they then?

20 March 2009

The great man had cause recently to think about former utility company staff who later became celebrated writers, artists or... ...more »

Tags:

Metal theft reaches ridiculous proportions

20 March 2009

This may or may not be a first, but no doubt the water industry is hoping that it doesn't indicate... ...more »

Tags:

Lighter moments amid a sea of seriousness

19 March 2009

While the last two days of the annual bout of navel gazing that is the Adam Smith Institute Future of... ...more »

Tags: pan-utility, people

Yorkshire Water gets the taste for Comic Relief

13 March 2009

Yorkshire Water is preparing to turn its contact centre, Loop, over to Comic Relief this evening. For the fourth time,... ...more »

Tags:

If you don't ask, you don't get...

13 March 2009

The great man (Disconnector, that is) was intrigued to see that Greg Clark MP, the Tory shadow energy and climate... ...more »

Tags: legislation

Food waste and wasted money

13 March 2009

Last week there was a short parliamentary debate about energy from food waste, which gave MPs a chance to air... ...more »

Tags: aneorbic digestion, renewables

Ask before you dig

09 March 2009

Disconnector is indebted to Utility Week's sister publication Contract Journal. It has reminded us all how important it is to... ...more »

Tags:

Modern words for modern times

11 February 2009

The following made Disconnector smile. These are some of the winners of this year's Washington Post Mensa Invitational, which asked... ...more »

Tags:

Show us yours...

07 February 2009

...snowman pictures, that is! Here are a couple of utility related snow people photos - if you have built a... ...more »

Tags: Southern Water

The mystery of the dead cockles

04 February 2009

Things are getting a bit heated down Llanelli way where millions of pounds of development have been put on hold... ...more »

Tags:

You can't be good at everything, right?

02 December 2008

You have to admire the chutz­pah of the man. Disconnector is referring to some of the recent parliamentary answers of... ...more »

Tags: water

Consumer body is out of Focus

19 November 2008

Last week, amiable Peter Luff MP, the chair of the Commons Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee, was in a... ...more »

Tags: Consumer Focus, Energywatch

Cute smiles and Kalashnikovs

05 November 2008

And so to this week's schadenfreude item. Clarion Events, a big cheese in the exhibition organising world, is having a... ...more »

Tags:

Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can also hurt me

29 October 2008

MPs have been getting hot under the collar over utility roadworks this week but it is worth noting that those... ...more »

Tags: South East Water, streetworks

A worm of truth to Planning Bill

23 October 2008

Their Lordships have been grinding through the government's Planning Bill over the past couple of weeks, an exercise low on... ...more »

Tags: planning

Who needs a verb, if you know what I mean?

01 October 2008

You may not wish to know the following about business secretary John Hutton, but his verbal style is very New... ...more »

Tags:

What not to say

08 August 2008

The great man chuckled about some of the utility companies' greatest consumer gaffes, recounted recently by the Guardian's erstwhile consumer champion Anna Timms. ...more »

Tags: customers, electricity, Npower

Poachers and gamekeepers

02 April 2008

Shock has been expressed at the news that Jonathan Hodgkin, director of network regulation at water regulator Ofwat, is to... ...more »

Tags: Centrica, Ofgem, Ofwat, Yorkshire Water

Every cloud has a civil lining

12 February 2008

Utilities must get tired of hearing about skills shortages, rising costs and over-heating of the London economy driving up the... ...more »

Tags: civil engineering, construction, contractors

Stop diesel spills and save a life

18 September 2007

A sister magazine to Utility Week, Truck & Driver, has launched a campaign to persuade lorry drivers and operators -... ...more »

Tags: Diesel, lorry