a difficult year

 2023 what sort of year will it turn out to be? let's ask mr. wolf (martin wolf of the FT)

'assuming nothing bad happens , really bad, then it's going to be a difficult year.'

the internet seems sluggish  this morning (maybe the electrons are cold and don't want to be shifted from their nice warm beds). horsemouth supposes the real problem is for people on key meters. once the juice is gone you face a walk to the shops in the snow to get the power back on. and once your money is gone you have no way to get the power back on.

horsemouth lived with key meters when he was down in popl(u)lar (pesky things). 

horsemouth wonders how the lads are doing back at the homestead. they adjusted to paying the increased charge before the government announced its 66/ month help 'package'. so far this winter they have held that in reserve. in a bit he will take a look and see if they want more money from him. they presumably will do after horsemouth submits the next set of meter readings (towards the end of the month). 

outside it resembles nothing so much as a US landscape painter's image of the winter. apparently it's very cold by british standards  (-5C). horsemouth has been out in minus 30 (in montreal) er. but not for long. 

'in october... liz truss’s government was ready to launch a formal campaign but decided against it. it later emerged that jacob rees-mogg, then business secretary, had signed off a “light touch” £15m campaign to save consumers £300 a year on energy bills but the move was blocked by truss, who opposed a “nanny state” intervention.' 

it is a difficult moment. advising people to turn down their heating in the middle of a cold-snap. but the battle must be fought all of  the winter long. beyond that there is the infrastructure battle to upgrade the electricity grid to provide enough power for people to actually use their air-source heat pumps (when and if those actually happen). 

horsemouth was in bed (but this doesn't mean you should miss out on some culture) 11.20pm  sky arts chasing trane  a documentary on john coltrane. horsemouth tends to actually listen to alice coltrane more, alice coltrane and pharoah sanders. he should listen to more sun ra and other jazz dudes (but he doesn't). miles davis  he listens to (but more electric miles). 

well it's looking glorious outside. in a bit breakfast. then a walk. etc.