Dumbing Down - The BBC

Radio 4 "Today" & "PM" bookend my day for reliable news & informed comment. This morning "Today" closed with Taylor Swift singing a song to mark the fact that she has announced her engagement. Really? Is this appropriate use of broadcast time. Especially as they often cut interesting interviews short because their timetable is so tight. 

Whatever were programme producers thinking? Personally I really couldn't give a toss that she has become engaged, let alone listen to minutes of a whole song. Had they just run out of real news? Similarly, is a serious news & commentary programme the place to trail other BBC programmes?

Possibly they thought a happy song & event would be "good" news. Serious miscalculation. We do need positive news, but not pop culture ephemera. We need genuine good news about things that are working, innovations that may mitigate climate change, political moves that might really impact the dire international situation.

My family didn't get a TV until after the coronation of queen Elizabeth, but we did have a radio. There were nothing like the number of stations & channels to choose from until relatively recently in my lifetime. The BBC & "public service broadcasting" was & still should be a lifeline of truth & relevance. 

Change is unavoidable, we do need to move forward as technology & the world changes. But do we really want to pander to the soundbite generation with the attention span of a gnat? Should public service broadcasters be forced into the mould of other providers?

 

I don't know how much research there has been into the capacity of the public to listen or watch content driven, fact checked, programmes. Maybe it is a niche market. But, I'm sure that, today, more than ever, it is necessary that the BBC provides it. Because, apart form a few excellent factual / documentary programmes across UK channels, we are being drip fed reality rubbish. Just look at the Radio Times if you don't believe me..

Reality programmes & sport are the modern day Roman gladiatorial equivalent. Relatively cheap to produce & engaging big audiences. That is the key to success - audience numbers. Especially for the channels that have advertising. 

That is what has always & hopefully will always make the BBC unique. We value it enough to pay for it. 

If that ends we will follow the USA into the oblivion of ratings driven, advertising heavy, mush. 

Crypto Currency & Self Destruction

My understanding of finance is fairly basic. In order to function in society you need to work to earn money, which you can then spend or save for a rainy day. Your money can be in a bank, in investments, or under the matress. Banks are there, backed up by collateral, to keep your money safe, accessible & earning interest. Investments may do well & earn you profit, or badly & you lose money.

Modern finance is way beyond my understanding. Since we sold off half our gold reserves between 1999 - 2002 at the lowest gold price in 20 years, we no longer have as much actual wealth to underpin banking. Stability is crucial for national economies, as gold helps preserve wealth and purchasing power when other assets may lose value. In addition, these gold reserves act as a safety net for Central Banks and help ensure they meet their obligations during times of financial crisis. 

Quantitative easing, where banks purchase financial assets, and essentially increase the cash flow in the economy, literally seems to me like printing monopoly money. But what do I know? It can lead to asset inflation, wealth inequality, and potential for long-term instability. It can also lead to distortions in the housing market, devaluation of currency, and difficulties in reversing the policy. 

Crypto currency is way beyond my skill set. Crypto exists digitally or virtually and uses cryptography to secure transactions. Crypto currencies don't have a central issuing or regulating authority, instead using a decentralized system to record transactions and issue new units. This is a public ledger called blockchain, a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders. Bitcoin came first in 2009. Now there are thousands of crypto currencies. To me that is "mumbo jumbo". Individual cryptocurrency projects or platforms, but seemingly not all, can be fraudulent and resemble Ponzi schemes. Some cryptocurrency projects, particularly Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), have been falsely marketed as investments offering high returns with little risk, resembling Ponzi schemes. Warren Buffett called the digital currency Bitcoin “probably rat poison squared.”

 

Having said all of that, my major beef is that, along with Streaming & AI, Crypto is really bad for the environment. Each bitcoin transaction generates carbon emissions roughly equivalent to driving a gasoline-powered car between 1,600 and 2,600 kilometres.Crypto high energy use often leads to increased greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change. In 2018 the level of emissions produced by Bitcoin sat between the levels produced by the nations of Bolivia and Portugal combined. Crypto's complex Proof of Work (PoW) process, requires substantial computational power. If electricity fails blockchains would be unable to verify transactions.

Basically, we are not Lemmings running over the cliff. We are human beings on the road to perdition & self destruction. 

Generating my own Electricity

I am quite excited. I feel I've done something really positive.

Last Wednesday scaffolders came & erected a complex network over my extension. They were very skilled. I thought it was quite difficult because the extension is clad with powder coated metal & the flat roof is covered with sedum. So the scaffolding couldn't touch any of it. 

On Friday a team of 3 came to install the solar panels, control box & battery. They too were very good at their job. The electrician in particular was really thorough & painstaking. He had to come back on Saturday morning. 

So around lunchtime on Saturday I started generating my own electricity. There is an app, of course, which tells you everything you need to know about the system & how it's working. It was generating even though it was cloudy. 

Because I live alone & don't use a lot of electricity I will be sending electricity to the grid which I will be paid for. The battery will just ensure that I use as little from the grid as possible.  

Yes it is expensive & I got nothing from the government to encourage me to do it. Yes, it is possible that I may not live long enough to recoup my investment. I'm willing to take that risk. I didn't do it to make a profit or break even. I did it because it is something positive I can do towards making the UK energy secure & combat climate change. It's important.

I simply canot understand why there has been no legislation or incentive from any government for householders to do this for years. It's a no brainer surely. Why would we willingly give up land for solar "farms" when that land is needed for both farming & housing? I actually think it's almost criminal. Even now the legislation making house builders install solar won't come in untill 2027. That could have been done decades ago.

It has been noisy & disruptive. It certainly is expensive. But my solar array will be there generating electricity long after I've gone. I would have to live to 105 before the guarantees end. 

It's worth doing something as an individual. None of us should sit back & wait for others to solve the energy & climate crisis. Mike Berners Lee says that "solar panels could be the best carbon investment you ever make" in "How bad are Bananas".

P S

https://theecologist.org/2025/may/30/ai-storm 

https://www.opportunitygreen.org/publication-data-centres-threaten-energy-systems-climate-goals 

 

Digital Marketing, Data Centres & the Carbon Footprint

When we think about carbon footprints aviation tends to top the list, with energy, industry & fashion. The Ecologist has done a piece this week about Digital Marketing. When I see images of cities like Tokyo, New York & London for example, I wonder why we don't consider this a complete waste of energy. It is costly in both financial & energy terms. It also causes huge light pollution & could possibly over stimulate the brain. Personally I can't see anything to recommend it.

https://theecologist.org/2025/mar/05/digital-marketings-carbon-footprint    

Data centres, which power everything from websites to social media, digital ads & streaming, online gaming, cryptocurrency & blockchain services, account for 2.5 per cent of global CO2 emissions - more than the entire aviation industry at 2.1 per cent. As the internet grows, so does its footprint. Data centers have a significant environmental impact due to their high energy consumption for running servers and cooling systems, contributing to increased carbon emissions and climate change. They also generate e-waste and require substantial infrastructure, including materials for construction and cooling systems. Data centres use about 1-1.3% of global electricity, largely sourced from fossil fuel, releasing substantial amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 

As of March 2024, there were approximately 11,800 data centers worldwide, with the United States leading with 5,381, followed by Germany (521), and the United Kingdom (514). Data centers come in various sizes, ranging from small, micro data centers to massive hyperscale facilities, with the average full-scale data center typically occupying around 100,000 square feet. That's over two football fields.

If we are truly going to take action to stop our devastating CO2 emissions causing the Climate Emergency we really need to look at how much energy we are wasting on trivia. We do need to switch off our lights when no one is in the room, but frankly that is a drop in the ocean of CO2. We need to tackle the waste & pollution our digital world is creating.

Is Solar & Onshore Power our Easter Island Moment?

I watched last night's BBC Panorama programme - "Rewiring Britain - the race to go green". I thought it was interesting & balanced. I hope the Government was watching too.

We know we need to generate far more electricity in order to stop using unsustainable non renewables. At least I hope we do all agree on that. Developments in both onshore & offshore sustainable generation have moved forward at pace. The technology is amazing & is improving all the time. 

The problems are twofold - 

• We don't have appropriate infrastructure to transport the electricity to where it is needed efficiently e.g. Substations & Pylons.
• The current solutions are industrialising the landscape & using precious productive farm land e.g solar "farms", substations & pylons again

 

It seems to me that the decision making is based mainly on cost. It is cheaper & quicker to do it above ground on land. If we continue along this route, not only will the government alienate the public who have valid concerns, but we will lose land we desperately need for food security & wildlife habitats. 

Exactly what they think happened on Easter Island, where the population perished because they chopped down the last trees & they were too far away from land to be able to establish themselves elsewhere. This could be our Easter Island moment. Not me - I'm too old. This is the possible future we are bequeathing to our grandchildren.

If the government are determined not to listen to valid concerns & won't learn from what Holland, Belgium & Germany et al are doing we are sounding our own death knell. It just seems so obvious & short termist to me. Yet again we are going down the route of not thinking of the inevitable outcomes of bad choices.

Surely the point of government is to look widely at evidence & select the best, least harmful option? Or am I too idealistic? Is Britain incapable of that because of our adversarial, power at all costs, (sorry about the pun), system of government? 

We need to wake up & see the light.

A Visit to A&E

I have just spent most of the weekend in the A&E of my local hospital. It isn't the first time, unfortunately I am someone who gets far more than their money's worth from the NHS. I never cease to be grateful for the care & skill of medics. How they cope with the sheer volume & variety of patients & the working conditions continually amazes me. Morale & care seems surprisingly high considering what they have to put up with, so I would never criticise the people who actually work in the NHS.

I do think the system needs a serious overhaul though & have blogged about it before. If they were to follow patients journeys through the system I think they might see opportunities for improvement.

I don't need to bore you with the detail of the circumstances that sent me there, but I will tell you the progress through it. 

14.30 - medical incident -> phoned 111-> initial speedy triage (efficient) -> 2nd triage, same questions but much longer & very inefficient. Took about 45 minutes. Both my daughter & I found it very difficult to understand the person asking questions -> doctor eventually rang hours later -> told to go to out of hours appointment at 19.00 -> a wonderful, competent, GP who sent me to A&E with a printed copy of the notes she took of all the neurological tests she did -> A&E 20.15 receptist + nurse then waiting room -> 9 hours in various waiting areas in a chair! Eventually triaged, same questions, ECG, Bloods, Blood pressure. Doctor eventually, same questions & tests as previously & a CT scan. No one was very interested in the very good notes the out of hours GP had given me. Everyone wanted to go through the same tests & questions themselves & didn't seem to know what the outcome of the previous persons questions & tests were. Long gaps between every interaction with no information -> eventually discharged at about 05.15 next morning. 

I was utterly exhausted having had no sleep & in quite a bit of pain because sitting in really uncomfortable chairs triggers some of my normal health conditions. 

I can completely understand why everyone a patient sees has to ask name, DOB & address. They need to know they are treating the right person. 

What I simply don't understand is why so much time is apparently wasted answering exactly the same health & incident related questions & doing exactly the same neurological tests. Why don't medics have ipads to enter the information as they go & share it with everyone treating that patient? In fact, does a single patient really need to be seen by so many people?

Triage means the preliminary assessment of patients or casualties in order to determine the urgency of their need for treatment and the nature of treatment required.

If my condition had been more serious than it turned out to be I would possibly have been dead after the time that elapsed.

When I got home at about 06.00 next morning, after waiting for a taxi, I went to bed. The hospital apparently tried to phone me around 9.30 to call me back for another CT + angiogram. My phone was turned off, but fortunately I woke up at about 11.00 & my daughter got through in time to collect me & take me back.

I'm fine now. But at 79 with several chronic conditions that experience was very trying. 

I completely understand from far too much experience, as far as a patient can, the difficulties the NHS operates under, (apologies for the pun). I just think that one of the great failings of the system is effective communication & sharing of information. In this age of modern technology it is really not acceptable to be wasting so much time in repetition. The use of ipads might be expensive initially but they could also be linked to the whole NHS computer system & from that every surgery & hospital could access a patient history in real time.

There must be other ways technology could be used to make the system better for medics & patients. 

 

Scams & Scammers

I regularly get Facebook friend requests from supposed American senior military men. Now, I know that I am reasonably intelligent, have a pleasant personality & am outgoing. But I also know that I'm past my "best before" date & I'm not conceited or desperate enough to believe that these men are genuine. Apparently it is a well known scam. https://www.aura.com/learn/military-romance-scams They may be using genuine identities, but they are not who you might think they are. A Google search brought up a huge number of links about this scam.

This is a despicable practice. The scammers target single women, often older, who they hope are lonely & vulnerable. The victims are presumably flattered that someone who is good looking & fairly high up in the services wants to link with them. We all have the capacity to suspend disbelief , especially if our quality of life isn't what we would like. The scammers are clever, manipulative & utterly unfeeling for their victims.

At some point in the "relationship" they will ask for money. This should trigger a healthy dose of scepticism in the victim. But by then they are invested in the "relationship" & want to belive that it is real & loving. If you are a reasonably genuine person you don't want to believe that a) you could be silly enough to fall for this scam & b) that people could be cruel enough to do this.

But they can & do & people regularly fall for it. Sadly not only do people loose quite large sums of money, but their faith in people is utterly destroyed & their confidence in themselves is shattered. It must be heartbreaking for the victims who are left knowing that they have been cruelly conned.

I do use social media, but I don't have hundreds of friends because I do actually know all of my friends. I am secure enough as a person not to feel the need to appear to have a huge & unrealistic friendship group. How did we get to the point where people feel that validation as a person requires masses of "friends" & "likes"? 

Don't even get me started on "Influencers". The clue is in the name. 

What sort of a society are we becoming when our "friendships" are largely on line via Texts, Twitter,  WhatsApps, Emails & Instagrams. No wonder people are having relationships with Robots & AI!

Planned Obsolescence OR A Circular Economy?

"Designing products to break quickly or become obsolete in the short to mid-term". The general idea is to encourage sales of new products and upgrades to boost profits, a practice that has been banned in some countries, but not in the UK. For example, a cellphone manufacturer may decide to use parts in its phones that have a maximum lifespan of five years, instead of parts that could last 20 years. It is also when spare parts or software updates aren't available, or an item can't be disassembled without destroying it. Changing a battery for example. Naively when I buy an item I imagine the guarantee as the minimum period the item should work for, with the expectation that it may well work for a lot longer. 

In my experience of 79 years, the general rule is that old stuff lasts longer. I imagine that is because of the quality of the raw materials items were produced with & possibly the skill & care workers took in the manufacturing process. I had a John Lewis fridge when I first got married that lasted decades for example. I kept clothes that I loved for years & years. They didn't fade, or fall apart. Seam allowances were sufficient, unlike todays clothes that regularly split.   

My generation valued craftsmanship & durability. We expected things to be worth what we paid for them & to last. That simply isn't true today. Most people expect to replace goods very regularly. They desire the newest iteration of whatever they buy. I didn't expect to change my kitchen units & white goods according to the dictates of fashion. I expected them to last for as long as I lived in the house. I certainly didn't expect to change my phone on a regular basis.

Why on earth have we become such slaves to fashion? 

Electronic waste in particular is becoming a huge issue that now threatens the environment. I remember taking broken electronics to someone to repair or calling someone out to repair bigger items. Nowadays finding someone with the skills is very difficult & expensive. Manufacturers have got away with telling us that it isn't viable to repair stuff. Many electronic components use raw materials that have to be mined & supply is not inexhaustable. This is unsustainable & destructive.

 

There is light on the horizon though. I recently had to change my router. The broadband company I was with, Plusnet, now has free recycling of old routers to recover precious components. I have also taken small electricals to "Share Cafes" locally where volunteers repair all sorts of things. 

This is called a "Circular Economy" - reusing, repairing and recycling existing materials and products whenever possible to extend their life cycle. A model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. The Ellen McArthur Foundation is a charity actively promoting this 

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview

We all need to change our attitudes & habits. There isn't much time to get this right.  

Cost, Price, Value & Incentives - Domesday Clock

Cost is the amount paid or charged for something. The Price of something can be the unpleasant results that you must accept or experience for getting or doing something. The Value is the monetary, material, or assessed worth of an asset, good, or service. An Incentive is a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something.

Our world is based on these 4 things. We have become a world of Consumers. Continual growth is King. Companies & individuals amass huge wealth. Politics is ruled by powerful & wealthy lobbyists, by consumer focus groups. We have more Stuff than we can possibly need & we waste vast amounts of that Stuff.

Advertising is a huge industry incentivising us to buy more & more Stuff. It can be very clever & insidious, persuading us that we just can't do without whatever the product is. We are faced with an overwhelming amount of choice. Just look at the Yogurt aisle in any big supermarket. We have become indoctrinated to buy. 

My generation can remember much simpler times when nowhere near as much Stuff was imported. When choice was limited to what was in season for example. When expectation about what needed to be available to buy was not nearly so high. But we have moved on. This is our reality.

The problem is that this new world has brought a wealth of problems. Not least is waste - pollution - inequality - depletion of finite resources & species - harm to the environment .... 

Our expectations have a huge Cost & we will pay an unimaginable Price if we don't Value what we have more & ignore the Incentives to make poor choices. We are at a Tipping Point. We could even have gone over it. Survival of the World is probably not at issue, it will probably recover if the human race sends itself into oblivion. 

The Doomsday Clock is at 90 seconds to midnight. That's a precarious position to be in & it isn't just about a nuclear catatstrophe.

Packaging

I bought some sliced turkey in a plastic tray with vacuum sealed plastic film on top. I couldn't open it. The seal was so tight I had to attack it with a knife despite the fact that it had a corner tab to aid opening. I regularly cannot open bottles & jars. Opening a tin of anchovies is life threatening. Opening tetra packs of soya milk always, always, ends up with milk spilt. The frustration levels are high. I have 5 completely different tools to help me with this problem. 

Then there is the guilt about all of the packaging that can't go into the recycling wheelie bin. Plastic is the obvious problem. Not least because of how many different types there are.

Unrecycled & much recyclable plastic either goes to landfill, what a bizarre rabbit hole that was to go down, or is exported to poorer countries. Did no one consider that dumping waste in the ground couldn't go on for ever & was a very bad idea? "The UK exports around 60% of the over 2.5 million tonnes of plastic packaging waste it creates. Turkey is the main destination for this waste. British plastic waste (is) being dumped and burned in Turkey, causing “irreversible and shocking” environmental and human health impacts"- UK Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

The food & food retailing industries have a lot to answer for. They have changed the world landscape. They have created mountains, huge pits, lakes & rivers of plastic waste with little or no consideration of the consequences of their actions. All for their convenience & profit. It's about time they paid the price of cleaning up the mess. They can't rectify a lot of the damage to species & environments, but possibly nature could recover in time.

But we, the public bear responsibility too. We haven't questioned what we were buying & the impact unnecessary, non biodegradable, packaging might have. We have opted for convenience too. Now we all know what we have done. So we all have a responsibility to do something about it. We must not just complain, we must refuse. We must take all the packaging back to the store of origin & make them deal with it responsibly. 

We have to live symbiotically with our planet & stop destroying it. There isn't another option. We humans are too destructive.

Me & My Tech

My father used to annoy me intensely when he was old & widowed by saying "it passes the time" when I suggested an outing. At the time, "time" was the one thing I didn't have. My father & mother in law were in their 80's & needed a lot of help. We had moved him to live nearer to us, but she still lived in the Midlands. My husband & I were both only children & had busy, professional jobs & lives. 

It's fair to say that neither of them had much in the way of interests & hobbies. The lives of that generation of "working class" people didn't really include much other than routine & getting by. So if we suggested a day out it was annoying to say the least to get a response like "if you like". 

40 odd years on & I'm in a similar position. Widowed & living alone. My life is very different though. 

Although I have no family apart from a daughter, her husband & 2 grandsons, I do have quite a lot of good friends & aquaintances. That wasn't true for my parents or parents in law. Basically they had neighbours. I meet a lot of people by swimming at the leisure centre & volunteering at the community centre. I have travelled the world & experienced many different cultures. I have worked in Nepal & Malawi. I enjoy going to museums & art galleries, reading, swimming, socialising....Just managing my complex life is a full time job! To do that I use tech a lot.

I have a desktop, a new mobile phone, an iPad, a smart doorbell, smart TV's & a smart speaker. My gizmos are smarter than I am! That's just as well because my brain is past it's "best before date". I do most things on line & am reasonably competent. In theory that should save me time, but often it doesn't. I regularly get into "black hole" tech problems. It can be a huge waste of time & extremely frustrating. Problems that would be quick to sort out if you could speak to a human lead you into a rabbit warren of phone choices, password & security checks, menu selections & stumbling blocks that are not intuitive to navigate.

The world has changed. In many ways it is so much better than my parents world or even mine 20 - 30 years ago. We humans are clever & inventive. We adapt to changing situations. 

I have just spent days trying to migrate from an old mobile to a new one & then from one mobile network to another. It has not been an enjoyable experience. At the moment I'm not sure whether I'm chuffed to have finally done it or furious that it wasted so much of my time. At least I can get it out of my system by posting in my Blog on my computer. 

 

HS2

Firstly HS2 seems to be a misnomer. There doesn't seem to be anything "high speed" about this project.

2009 - The line was announced in January.

2012 - It got the go ahead after consultations in January.

2013 - Concerns over rising costs - Original cost between £31 - £36 billion

2016 - National Audit Office (NAO) report on HS2’s progress and finance issues. The project was facing cost and schedule delivery problems and should be delayed by a year.

2019 - BBC report finds the Government and HS2 bosses were aware the project was grossly over budget and behind schedule for the past three years. HS2 Ltd chairman Allan Cook didn't believe the project could be delivered within its £55.7bn budget and would be delayed.

2020 - Previous chairman of HS2 Douglas Oakervee issued an independent review stating the project could cost as much as £108bn.The NAO added it was uncertain what the final cost of the project could be. PM Johnson gives the project the green light despite rising concerns. Independent Construction Commissioner appointed. MPs warn the project has gone “badly off course”. Formal construction begins.

2021 - Public Accounts Committee HS2 accountability sessions in Birmingham. Major concerns regarding the projected increase in time and money. MPs stating there is “no clear end in sight”. Public Accounts Committee “increasingly alarmed” regarding vital parts of the project. MPs from both sides argue over the Government’s Integrated Rail Plan (IRP), which aims to transform the rail network in the North and Midlands. Clashes within Government and ongoing protests. PM Johnson announces "we will do Northern Powerhouse Rail, we will link up the cities of the Midlands and the North”. The eastern leg of HS2 to Leeds is scrapped with no east-west line linking Leeds to Manchester being built. The Oakervee review of HS2 showed a major rethink was needed, (finds that HS2 could cost up to £106bn), with the National Infrastructure Commission report meaning “a flexible approach” was needed.

2022 - Ministers come under fire for cancelling a £3bn section of HS2, which would have allowed Scotland to benefit from the rail line. 

2023 - Acivists state that justifications of the HS2 project “have gone out the window” after reports that the Euston route could be axed due to rising costs. Department for Transport looks to commission HS2 to rethink its scheme, with the possibility of axing parts of the proposed line due to rising costs. Completion of the project could now be as late as 2045. (The original completion date for the original HS2 was 2033 More delays announced by Thurston in order to curb rising costs, with the route’s final destination yet to be confirmed as central London.

14 years & counting. A significantly worse deal for the North. A cost increase of at least £70 billion so far. 

 

The UK definitely needs a much better integrated public transport system. The most important part of HS2 was the improvement to the Northern cities. Why on earth didn't they start building it in Leeds & Manchester or Crewe? London to Birmingham would only be 29 minutes shorter & it's already direct. It's so typical of this government's London centric policy making. What logic is behind scrapping the Leeds link? 

This has been shambolic from start to not even finish. Its way overrun on time & cost. There have been 9 Sectrtary's of State for transport since 2009, all but 3 lasting less than a year! How can the public expect that to mean good understanding & oversight of the brief? More than 35 contracts were handed to construction firms by HS2 as of 2022. Balfour Beatty recorded an £83M pre-tax profit in its half year results 2022 - an increase on £35M a year earlier.  

It's a recipe for waste & disaster & that is exactly what we have got. Tax payers should be incensed - especially those in the North.

 

 

 

Let There be Light.

I've spent a lifetime turning lights off in rooms I'm not using. Years ago it was because there was no spare money to waste. I was born at the end of the war - Frugality was built in. It became a habit & I actually felt slightly uncomfortable if I was in homes where people left all the lights on all the time - Even when they weren't at home.

If you have lived on a very fixed income with no savings you are mindful of every penny. Even though I don't have money worries now I can't bear waste or profligate spending. It's ingrained in my DNA.

Bearing that in mind I don't understand & am a little irritated by the targeting the public to save energy by switching everything off apart from routers, fridge freezers & printers. Why not the bigger wasters of electricity like office & public buildings, advertising lighting in places like Piccadilly Circus & street lighting on motorways at night.......? There are huge energy savings to be made. 

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1107502/Energy_Trends_September_2022.pdf

Individually we do all need to do our bit for the benefit of everyone & the world we live in. It is in our own interest & there are a lot of us. But it must be a drop in the ocean in comparison to what could be achieved by commercial & industrial organisations. It is in their interest too, to  reduce costs & increase profits. Obviously transport & agriculture also use huge amounts of electricity & could probably make savings too.

We need to look at the whole picture in order to meet targets for the Climate Emergency. There isn't much time to achieve sustainability & stop using fossil fuels. Just flying at night shows the whole world lit up. An added bonus would be the end of light pollution. We could actually see the stars & the natural world would benefit too.