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Double Glazing Blogger: May 2010

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Time To Move Away From Oil

If ever there was a reason to move away from the reliance of oil it is the ongoing environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

This is started when the Deepwater Horizon rig suffered an explosion and eventually sunk. As it was going down, the fail-safes aboard the rig failed and a rupture in the line was allowed to form, causing 12,000 barrels of oil and gas to leak into a pristine natural area. Having been to the Caribbean 3 times I know full well what a nice area this, and this is one of the worst things that can happen there.

This all boils down to our huge reliance on oil. This is an issue I'm sure many of you know I feel particularly impassioned about. We desperately need to move away from the use of oil as soon as we can. In an economic climate where cash is hard to find at the minute, I feel that as well as governments doing their bit to move the effort forward, companies like BP, Shell and the other massive oil companies should be spending more of their enormous profits on finding ways to make renewable energies more accessible and user friendly.

The double glazing industry has to prepare itself for the same thing. There is going to come a point where the polymers used to make our PVCu cannot be made from oil. There is information out there which states the same polymers can be made using sustainable crops used for oil, so why don't we go down that road a bit further and see if it is a viable option. Because sooner or later, and certainly in my lifetime, oil is going to become a resource only talked about in history, not in the present.

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Friday, May 28, 2010

Daylight Robbery

I don't know if this is a story any of your already know, but just in case you don't...

The term 'daylight robbery' originated many moons ago. Hundreds of years ago there was a tax put on houses depending on the size of the windows on the property and how many window the building had. So, to get round the tax, people made their windows much smaller, or got rid of some altogether, making the houses a lot darker inside, hence the term 'daylight robbery'.

If you look at very old cottages one of their features are the small windows, probably because of the window tax.

Let's hope that the new government doesn't decide to re-introduce this sort of tax again!

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Capital Gains Tax May Stifle Business Growth

The coalition government plans to raise capital gains tax (CGT) from 18% to 50%. CGT is paid on the profit made from selling a business, or the profit made from a landlord renting out a property. Now the Tories said they wanted to drive the recovery by supporting small businesses and enterprise. But if I was starting up a new business and had the plan to sell it in the future, why would I if they plan to take half the profit I make from the sale of it?!

This is going to have the complete opposite reaction to what the government wanted. The main reason why people start up their own businesses is to aim to make as much money as possible, either by making good yearly profits, or by building up the businesses to a point where when they sell it, they make enough money to live a comfortable life. However this is now not going to happen.

Here's the scenario. A person wants to sell their business and the profit they will make from the sale will be £2 million. Under current CGT rules, they will be taxed £360,000. Under the new rules, that will go up to a staggering £1 million. I foresee a lot less business sales now in the future. How does the government think they are going to drive the recovery forward using small businesses when they want to cripple the amount of profits those sales make. People are in business to make money, not to be taxed through the nose.

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Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Over-Diversification

During the worst of the recession, one of the buzz words was 'diversify'. And so companies did. Be it supplying and installing new products, or expanding an existing range of products or services. We were told that by diversifying, companies would find an extra line of revenue to help them through the tough times.

It seemed that some companies took this advice, and really went for it. I've seen some companies move into all sorts of different markets. Ultraframe Verandas, PVCu decking, fencing, PVCu companies turning to aluminium and timber, garage doors, driveways, felt roofs. The list goes on.

The risk was, and probably still is, companies could lose sight of what their core business is. If a window company moves into a handful of different sectors, the window side of the business could lose attention and start to fail. During the worst of the recession, we stuck to what we were good at, selling windows, doors and conservatories. We found we didn't need to move into other areas. We did look at other areas, but found that most weren't viable options. The only one that seemed useful was solar panels, and this is something we are still looking into.

Some companies in my opinion over-diversified. Did they ask themselves if they really would make any more money installing PVCu decking for example? Diversifying is only useful if there is a demand for a product or service. I got the feeling that most of the new products and services companies added to their portfolio's didn't have much of a demand.

My advice, stick to what you know. It's much easier to squeeze extra money out of a product which already had a strong demand.

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A Sad 6 Weeks For Metal Music

I know this has nothing to do with the window industry, but Metal music is a passion of mine, and over the past six weeks, the metal music industry has lost some big and influential names.

The first was the lead singer of a band called Type O Negative, Peter Steele. He died through heart failure at the age of 48.

Last week Ronnie James Dio, lead singer of Dio and Black Sabbath, died from stomach cancer. He popularised the 'devil horns' gesture, and was a trail blazer in the industry he worked in.

Thirdly, and just last night, the bass player from Slipknot was found dead in his hotel room in Des Moines, Iowa. I saw Slipknot live last year at Download and I can confidently say that it was one of the best shows I will ever see, and he will be sadly missed by fans and other bands alike.

Back in December 2009, 'The Reverend' James Sullivan, drummer for Avenged Sevenfold also passed away.

The metal music industry has suffered a lot recently. But, knowing how resilient metal bands and the metal industry is, they will carry the flag on in their names, and keep their memories alive in their music.

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I'm Back

I'm back to the normal routine after spending the last few days celebrating my girlfriend's 21st birthday. Saturday was spent in Liverpool, getting very drunk and managing to find a rock and metal club. Sunday was spent shopping and recovering and yesterday we all went for a very swish meal with friends and family. So, back at it. Have I missed anything?

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Thursday, May 20, 2010

The Industry In 3 Words

The industry has evolved, and is continuing to evolve at a fast pace, and changes which have altered the way we work mean the industry now is completely different to what it was when I was born, 21 years ago.

How would you describe the industry now, in just 3 words? Mine are:
1. Vulnerable
2. Positive
3. Frustrated

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I've Got Professional Help

We had in our IT guy today to work on getting us a better, faster, more compact company website done. But while he was here I obviously had to talk to him about hosting my blog and getting it a proper domain name sorted. So it looks like I should have that sorted within about four weeks. It's more likely to be done when I get back from Download Festival. This time it's going to be done right, and I'll get some SEO help too.

As regards to the company website, well I was wrong. It was something I thought could have been done by myself, but it then became crushingly obvious that once it went live, it wasn't. So, in about a months time, we should have a smoother, faster and slicker website. One which is able to take advantage of the thousands of impressions we get a month, and to start taking more internet leads.

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HIP's Likely To Go

Details have just been released by the new coalition government about the full policy sheet. One of those details that have been announced recently is the scrapping of HIP's.

When HIP's were first introduced, everyone was sceptical of the advantages. It was seen as just another money making scheme with no real benefits. So, as a way to cut bureaucracy and costs, HIP's are to go. This I'm sure will be good news to many, as moving house already accumulates a lot of paper work, HIP's just added unecessarily to the pile.

UPDATE: HIP's are to be scrapped officially.

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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

It's Just A Job

Customer's regularly tell me: 'the other salesman just didn't seem interested'.

This is a problem for our industry, and is caused by two things. The first is the basic wage. While a basic wage gives the cushion incase the salesman has a bad week, it breeds low motivation. I'm only paid on what I sell, totally comission only. And I can assure you that it makes you work damn hard, harder than others on a basic wage. It makes you enthusiastic, it gives you urgency and forward thinking. This creates a much better impression with the customer, and can help win the order in the end.

The second reason is lack of motivation, otherwise known as lazyness. For a lot of people, selling is just a job, not a career. It's just something that pays the bills. Which is why they only settle for the basic wage, and if they sell 3 jobs in the week then it's a bonus. These types of people should not be out there selling as it pushes that stale image our industry still has. We need people selling who wake up motivated, ready to do the best they can, everyday, be energetic and click with the customer straight away. Do that, and the results will come.

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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

More Recycling Equals Less Skips

Last week, when hoarding over 250 post-consumer PVCu frames into an Ecoplas big green skip, it hit me how much we are saving on skips.

If we weren't doing all the recycling we are doing now, we would still be using way too many skips for our own good. In fact we're now probably using over 50% less skips than we were a year ago. This is obviously saving us plenty on skip hire. LSS Skips won't be too happy, but I'm sure Ecoplas will be, and our accountant too.

Recycling PVCu isn't the only thing we do. All the old aluminium frames we take out get de-glazed and taken to a scrap merchants to redeem a bit of cash. Again, not filling our skips, and making the most of the material we remove. Helps pay for the Christmas do at the end of the year too!

The only thing I think we are guilty of is our use of paper. We use a lot of paper, and we have massive stacks of old industry magazines that we can't just throw away. We need a few of those green paper recycling bins. The amount of paper we just throw in the bin is criminal. I think I might appoint myself our Environmental Officer!

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Monday, May 17, 2010

I Need To Change My Car!

Just before Xmas last year I changed my red Grande Punto 1.2 Activ (basic model), to a 1 year old, Grande Punto 1.4 turbo, top of the range model, and it's absolutely gulping petrol! At the miniute I'm putting in £25 every 4-5 days! This is not a sustainable way of driving!

So, Im seriously thinking of a hybrid for my next car. You all probably know what I think about the impending oil crisis, so based on that, and the fact that petrol prices will probably too high to pay in a few years time, a hybrid car seems the logical option. However, there are only a few options out there, mostly only Toyotas and Hondas, neither of which I'm too keen on. But I have to put that aside and make running costs the main factor when choosing a car.

Can anyone recommend any good hybrids out there? The only sticking point is that I can't actually swap the car for another 2 years, but there's no harm in planning ahead!

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Sunday, May 16, 2010

Trouble For One Of The Big Nationals?

When we went down to a recent product launch held by our manufacturers, we were quietly told that one of the big nationals of our industry had to be 'bailed out' by the banks. Now what for of help the banks gave we don't know. Emergency cash injection? Re-financing of their debts? Loan agreement changes? We don't know, and likely never will. But, if there is any truth to the statement, it shows how fragile the industry still is.

I don't know if it's me, but since the election, things have quietened down a bit, as whole. Are the public getting ready to brace for tax rises and spending cuts, thus keeping their money in their pockets? Because right about now is when the industry should be springing into life ready for the summer period. But it all seems a bit lethargic.

Obviously I can't say who this big national company is, otherwise I might get killed. But, if the company in question is requiring help, then anyone in this industry is at risk. We're not out of the wood yet.

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Friday, May 14, 2010

I Was Getting A Bit Ahead Of Myself!

I'm the sort of person where once I get an idea in my head, I run with it straight away, instead of calming down and logically thinking the idea through. This is exactly what I did yesterday.

I started to form the idea of a Parliamentary party style system for the double glazing industry, where companies in different sectors could join their particular group or party, with the end result being a true representative body which could stand up for the industry instead of getting bullied.

However, for this to all work, I need to know if people/companies would be willing to get involved in such a thing. There's no point in me creating blogs and websites for the groups if there isn't going to be enough interest. So people need to start letting me know. If I think we'll get enough people on board, then I'll go ahead and form the other sites. For now I'll just stick with http://www.glazinginstallersgroup.blogspot.com/ and this can be used as a test site to see if I drum up enough interest.

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Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Glazing Installers Group

I've been having a few ideas (like I usually do) and have stumbled on a possibly workable one. Many in this industry have said we need unity, but we all know that is hard to achieve. So, I've taken the Parliamentary blue print and applied it to the PVCu industry. The idea is to create a group/party for each sector of our industry. One for installers, fabricators and systems companies, one for IGU's and one for hardware/parts companies.

If we can get as many companies to join the groups as possible, get some dialogue going, we might be able to make some progress for strong and singular industry voice. I've always thought that more open communication can only do the industry good, but the platforms have to be there for people/companies to be able to do so.

The dream result at the end of all this would be if all the different sectors in our trade were to piece together a true, strong industry body that the whole market to use or go to to provide advice, help, one that can actually stick up for the companies, unlike so many of the other PR driven schemes.

All this is still fairly fresh and I'm already thinking of hurdles I'll need to get through to make this all work. So I need everyone's help and ideas. All are welcome. I have the drive to make things like this work, so email me or comment with your advice and direction.

The blog for the installers is: http://www.glazinginstallersgroup.blogspot.com/

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Margins

What is a good amount of profit to make per window or door? I've heard very differing estimates recently, some very low and some quite high. So I'm putting the question out there, what is the right margin to put on a window or door?

I'm not expecting many responses, unless they are anonymous ones, this is me being a bit cheeky!

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Blog Visitor Numbers

The last post about my visitor numbers was shown in weeks, which probably wasn't so easy to look at, so I've got it in months now:






I must have written something very interesting over the Christmas period! It shot up at that point. The graph's figures are taken up to today, which explains the sharp dip at the end.

To date the stats are:

  • 5623 visits

  • 9975 page views

  • 1.77 page views per visit

  • Bounce rate: 68.27%

  • Average time on site: 2min 26sec

  • New visits: 32.62%

  • 1852 different visitors

  • Visits from USA: 108

  • Average time on site from USA visitors: 14sec

  • Visits from Philippines: 17

  • Average time on site from Philippine visitors: 3min 19sec
I thought I'd show the last four stats because of the strange differences between the American and Philippine visitors.

I know those stats can be improved on, and that will involve getting this blog a proper independent website. But last time I tried that it nearly all went wrong, so if I'm going to do it I'll get a proper website nerd to do it!

The reason why the graph starts at August is because that is when I started to get my first views coming through and my first comments.
PS: you'll have to click on the image to get it full size!

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Would The Window Industry Benefit From A Coalition?

'Coalition' is the buzz word at the minute, and all sorts of coalition comparisons are being thrown about. But could the window industry actually benefit from a coalition itself?

For a long time I've been saying the industry needs to band together for the good of our trade. To make this clear I'm not suggesting for one minute that companies could merge or start to blur themselves into each other. But could there be a way the companies within this industry can band together which would allow the industry to collectively gain more influence in the future and direction of our sector?

For a start, there are far too many alliances, organisations, labels and schemes. What would perhaps be more helpful is if the slate could be wiped clean. Once a clean slate has been arranged, the industry could have a sort of referendum on what would be the best way to keep a united industry, give it more stability, and at the same time establish a new and strong marque. Something which the consumer knows is substantial, respectable and which can improve the image of the industry. The more schemes and ideas that flood the industry, the more the consumer is going to be bemused by all the different labels and logos.

Perhaps a genuinely united industry is an idea pulled completely out of fantasy, and would create more problems rather than solve any. I seem to think it could do us some good, but it's getting everybody involved and anticipating which would be the difficulty. Share your thoughts please. Coalition industry, good or bad?

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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Beginning Of Cameron's Britain

It took all of about 45 minutes for Britain's colours to change from red to blue. A poignant statement from the outgoing Gordon Brown began the formal pomp and procedures of the Queen asking David Cameron to form the next Government.

So, say hello to increased VAT rates. Say hello to increased petrol prices. Say hello to increased cigarette and beer prices. Say hello to higher inheritance tax. Say hello to the deepest public sending cuts we'll have had for decades. I urge those who haven't read one of my recent articles 'Scary Look Into A Conservative Future'. There were hints in Cameron's speech in front of Number 10 that he was planning to remove Government from certain areas of society, and expected the public to start to fill in the gaps. Read that post and you'll see that in a council in London, that idea went drastically wrong.

I fear that a lot of spending cuts are going to be made too deep and too quickly. And the double glazing industry can wave goodbye to any slim chance of energy rated windows coming with a reduced 5% VAT rate, that's never going to happen now. In fact, we can all look forward to the prospect of VAT being raised to about 20-21%. That combine that with other cuts and tax rises and that really will put the brakes on an industry recovery!

Some may say I'm being cynical. But both my parents and my girlfriend's parents have told me how hard going it was when the Tories were last in power. You never know, Mr Cameron may do a fantastic job, but with the overhaul he's going to have to perform to attempt to get the country back on the right track, I'm doubtful.

We watched something historic take place today. And I assume that over the coming weeks and month, dramatic and life changing decisions are going to be made that are going to affect each and everyone of us. What I hope is that as an industry, we can show the steely resolve that got us through the recession, because I believe we may need to call upon that steely reserve very soon.

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The DGCOS Debate

Last week, BBC Breakfast brought to the UK the new Double Glazing and Conservatory Ombudsman Scheme. And since that broadcast, the DGCOS, what they stand for and what they say have come under intense scrutiny from the double glazing industry.

The aims of the DGCOS according to their website is to help installers separate themselves from the cowboys of the industry, gives our customer genuine peace of mind, it's there to protect us against the customer just out to get what they can...and that's about it really.

Here's my thoughts, much of which has been said by the industry already. Firstly, it costs a hell of a lot of money. A company with a £1,000,000 turnover will have to pay £32,000 a year. This is an enormous amount of money, and the 'benefits' the scheme will provide do not justify a company paying out that much money. Secondly, using the term 'Ombudsman' has connotations of government, of which the scheme has no connection as far as I'm aware to the government at all. But it's the gravitas of the word that the DGCOS is spinning to their benefit. Thirdly, the scheme has used Nick Ross, who everyone knows is the face of consumer protection. As an industry, this type of gloss won't be taken quite as well as the public might take it. In fact they'll just see right through it and not even acknowledge it. Next, when you really read what they say on the website, it doesn't really explain in a detailed fashion how either the consumer or installer is any more protected. It says it law enforcing powers, but gives no examples. Sort of like the recent election campaign, a lot of slick talk and no substance.

The next thing the DGCOS has done wrong is to start threatening legal action all over the place. If the DGCOS wants to pick up installers, they have to take criticism on the chin, then do their bit to prove to the sceptics (of which there are a lot off) that the scheme is worth joining. They even threatened action against the BBC, the organisation they need to get publicity! Madness!

Personally, this is just another scheme, probably the most expensive one to date, created to make money for it's inventor. I can't see any real benefit to either the consumer or installer. Also, for those that do join, their certification logo will probably be added to an already large list. How is a customer supposed to know which scheme is the right one when there are all sorts of logos and certifications about now? One of the biggest issues here is the cost. I think if the cost was a minimal one like the others are then they will get more installers on board. But with a cost like the one mentioned above then no is really going to take this seriously. 

There has been this debate going on at the GlassTalk site for the last few days, and it looks like the DGCOS have written a few comments posing as customers (don't sue me DGCOS, it's just my opinion!). It's actions like this which aren't going to help the scheme gain any more credibility. 

It will be interesting to see how this debate develops over the next few days and weeks!

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Monday, May 10, 2010

Eurozone Crisis Postponed

The Eurozone has just been given one hell of a lot of money. EU finance ministers have agreed to Euro countries having access to 440bn euros of loan guarantees, and 60bn euros of emergency cash. And then on top of that, the IMF have said they could provide up to 250bn euros. So altogether the Eurozone in effect has just been given 750bn euros to make sure Europe doesn't go bankrupt and the Euro currency doesn't fail.

But this is only a temporary measure. Greece still has to see to it's crippling deficit. Remember that this money isn't there to pay the debt off, it's there to make sure Greece doesn't default on it's payments. So they still have to see to their massive deficit, as do Spain, as do Portugal, as do Italy and as do we!

This money is here as a back up. Countries with big budget deficits are going to have to make public spending cuts as quick as is viable, and raise tax levels just as swiftly. I feel that the time is now upon to see to the massive levels of debt countries owe, and if it's not done now, we can expect enormous financial difficulty.

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Friday, May 7, 2010

My Poll

In the end, the poll, as the graph shows, was completely off the mark in terms of what the actual result of the election was:













Can you imagine if this was the real result!

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Hung Parliament

We've woken up this morning to a result the opinion polls have said would happen since April 6th, a hung Parliament. What will happen now, and what will be the effects on the country and the economy.

At the time of writing, there are still 38 results to be declared. This is important as the more Labour can get, the task of forming a coalition Government will be made easier. This is the only way Labour will manage to hold on to power. Once the last results have been announced, Labour will have to get their salesman's heads on and go round the smaller parties trying to secure their backing. This of course will be done by the Tories also. I think we can expect to see days and days of wheeling and dealing. It is of the utmost importance that a deal is done. If no deal is done, then a second General Election is on the cards. And if this happens the parties can expect a lower turnout, the public won't engage in this one as well if they think there isn't going to be a clear cut result again.

The hung result this morning has also had an effect on the currency and stock market (although the turmoil in Greece won't be helping either). The pound is down against the dollar, and the FTSE at the time of writing is down 62 points. Investors can't stand uncertainty, and this is exactly what they have got. This is another reason why a deal has to be done, either way, to make sure that the markets and the investors settle and don't panic.

With all the focus on the result/non-result of the election, the eye has been taken off the ball. Whoever becomes the Prime Minister, major public spending cuts will have to be made, and taxes will have to rise, and these won't be small measures. Whoever wins power, what they will have to do will be so unpopular, they won't be able to be re-elected for a generation.

One of the big questions to ask is how the spending public will react. The longer the uncertainty goes on, the longer the public are unsure of what tax rises and spending cuts are yet to be announced, are they going to keep their money in the bank? We've already seen investors becoming nervy, will the general public start to behave the same?

One thing we do know, is that we won't actually know what the end result is going to be for the best part of a week, at the very least. Interesting times are ahead!  

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Thursday, May 6, 2010

If You Don't Vote, Don't Complain!

There are still a lot of people who tell me that they aren't bothering to vote. The main reason these people give is 'non of them are worth voting for'. That's a fair enough assessment, however it annoys me it's obvious people haven't even bothered to look into which party stands for what.

In countries such as Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, people die for the privaledge of voting. Just recently car bombs and suicide bombers blew themselves up outside polling stations as people queued to cast their vote. Even here, the Suffragets died at the beginning of the 1900 in order for women to have the vote. So when people in this country say they can't be bothered voting, or say they don't know who to vote for, that to me isn't a good enough excuse. If you can't decide on who to vote for, look at their policies, and then your personal situation, way up the pros and cons of the policies to see if your going to be better off depending on what party your looking at. It takes 5 minutes. Don't waste the privaledge previous generations have died for, and what people are still dying for today.

And remember, if you don't vote, don't complain!

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Why A Vote For The BNP Is Not A Wise One

I've just seen an appauling video of a BNP candidate and a group of Asian men attacking each other. Both groups of people looked to antagonise each other, but the BNP member shold have been the man to try and diffuse a tense situation. But I'm kidding myself here. The BNP are not known for their excellent handling of public situations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8663681.stm?ls

The link above is to the video on the BBC website, I can't embed it on here unfortunately. But please take a look and see what thugs we have standing for Parliament in this country.

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Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Scary Look Into A Conservative Future

This is why I haven't voted conservative. Please take the time to read this, it's quite a long extract, but I can assure you it's a very revealing read. The article is from The Independant, and journalist Johann Hari:

This is a dispatch from David Cameron's Britain, the country that could be waiting for us at the other end of the polling booths and the soundbites and the spin. I didn't have to take a time machine to get there; I just had to take the District Line. In 2006, a group of rebranded "compassionate Conservatives" beat Labour for control of Hammersmith and Fulham Council, a long stretch of west London. George Osborne says the work they have done since then will be a "model" for a new Conservative government, while Cameron has singled them out as a council he is especially "proud" of. So squeezed between the brownish dapple of the Thames and the smoggy chug of the Westway, you can find the Ghost of Cameron Future. What is it whispering to us?


Hammersmith and Fulham is a sprawling concrete sandwich of London's rich and London's poor. It starts at the million-pound apartments on the marina at Chelsea Harbour – white and glistening and perfect – and runs past giant brownish housing estates and Victorian mansions, until it staggers to a stop on Shepherd's Bush Green, where homeless people sit on the yellow-green grass drinking and watching the SUVs hurtle past. Here, high incomes squat next to high-rises in one big urban screech of noise. In such a mixed area, the Conservatives had to run for power as a reconstructed party "at home with modern Britain". They promised to move beyond Thatcherism and make the poor better off. They were the first to hum the tune that David Cameron has been singing a capella in this election.


People who took this at face value were startled by the first act of the Conservatives on assuming power – a crackdown on the homeless. They immediately sold off 12 homeless shelters, handing them to large property developers. The horrified charity Crisis was offered premises by the BBC to house the abandoned in a shelter over the Christmas period at least. The council refused permission. They said the homeless were a "law and order issue", and a shelter would attract undesirables to the area. With this in mind, they changed the rules so that the homeless had to "prove" to a sceptical bureaucracy that they had nowhere else to go – and if they failed, they were turned away.


We know where this ended. A young woman – let's called her Jane Phillips, because she wants to remain anonymous – turned up at the council's emergency housing office one night, sobbing and shaking. She was eight months pregnant. She explained she was being beaten up by her boyfriend and had finally fled because she was frightened for her unborn child. The council said they would "investigate" her situation to find "proof of homelessness" – but she told them she had nowhere to go while they carried it out. By law, they were required to provide her with emergency shelter. They refused. They suggested she try to find a flat on the private market.
 
For four nights, she slept in the local park, on the floor. She is still traumatised by the memories of lying, pregnant and abandoned, in one of the wealthiest parts of Europe. The Local Government Ombudsman investigated but the council recording of the case was so poor she said it "hindered" her report. After a long study, she found the council's conduct amounted to "maladministration". Since they came to power, the Conservatives are housing half as many homeless people as Labour – even though the recession has caused a surge in homelessness. That's a huge number of Janes lying in parks, or on rotting mattresses by Hammersmith Bridge.


Why would they do this? The Conservative administration was determined to shrink the size of the state and cut taxes as an end in itself. Rather than pay for it by taking more from the people in the borough with the most money, they slashed services for the broke and the broken first. After the homeless, they turned to help for the disabled. In their 2006 manifesto, the local Conservatives had given a cast-iron guarantee: "A Conservative council will not reintroduce home-care charging". It was a totemic symbol of leaving behind Thatcherism: they wouldn't charge the disabled, the mentally ill or the elderly for the care they needed just to survive.


Within three months, the promise was broken. Debbie Domb, 51, is a teacher who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1994. She had to give up work, and now she needs 24/7 care. After being lifted up by a large metal harness and placed in her wheelchair so she can talk to me, she explains: "This was always such a great place to live if you were disabled. You were really treated well. Then this new council was elected and it's been so frightening... The first thing that happened when they came in was that they announced any disabled person they assessed as having 'lower moderate' needs was totally cut off. So people who needed help having a shower, or getting dressed, had that lifeline taken away completely. Then they started sending the rest of us bills."


She "panicked" when a bill came through saying she had to pay £12.50 for every hour of care she needed. "I thought, 'Oh my God, how am I going to do this?' The more care you need, the higher your bill, so the most disabled people got the highest charges. Everyone was distraught. I had friends who had to choose between having the heating on in winter and paying for their care ... I know a 90-year-old woman with macular degeneration who can't see, and she had to stop her services. There are lots of people who have been left to rot, with nobody checking any more that they're OK, and I'm sure some of them have ended up in hospital or have died." One of the council's senior social services managers seems to have confirmed this, warning in a leaked memo that the charges could place the vulnerable "at risk".


Debbie co-founded an organisation to fight back – the Hammersmith and Fulham Coalition Against Community Care Cuts – and, after appealing, she finally had her charges cancelled. "But there are a lot of people who can't appeal," she says. "You're talking about very vulnerable people – the very old, the mentally ill, the blind. A lot don't know how, or would be ruled to have to pay anyway, because the rules are so arbitrary. Now they're being taken to debt-collection agencies for non-payment. I know an 82-year-old woman who's never been in debt in her life who is being taken to a debt-collection agency for care she needs just to keep going... They want volunteers to do it instead. But you don't want to have to ask your friends or a volunteer to pull up your knickers for you."


Each year since the Conservative council was elected, the pressure on the housebound has increased. Meals
on Wheels brings one good, hot meal a day to people who can't get out. The council jacked up the charges for it by £527 a year – so half of the recipients had to cancel it. A local Labour councillor documented that the council rang up a 79-year-old woman with dementia, and when she seemed to say she didn't need any food, they cut off her meals.


The cost of almost all council services has sky-rocketed, to fund tax cuts that disproportionately benefit the wealthy. David Cameron says he wants to make Britain "the most family-friendly country in the world" with "childcare as a top priority", but his showcase council has increased charges for childcare by a reported 121 per cent – a fact that makes the warnings about Michael Gove's planned "top-up fees" for nursery places seem even more ominous.


As I spend days walking across the borough, I find the detritus of the old thriving public sector now shut and shuttered. Next to a big council estate I stumble across the large red-brick Castle Youth Club. It was built in Dickens' time and bequeathed to the local council "to benefit the children of this area for perpetuity". The Conservatives shut it down two years ago to sell it off. The deal fell through, so now it sits empty while the local kids hang around on the streets outside.


***


Ricky Scott, 18, tells me what it used to be like: "It was a really good place. When I left school they found me a part-time job at Sainsbury's – they taught me how to write a CV – and they persuaded me to go to college. They gave you a place to go to stay out of trouble, they got you into the gym, they helped us learn loads of stuff ... They did a lot to teach us about knife crime and how to stop it. When my friend was stabbed they helped us organise a big campaign about knives." After the youth club was closed, there was a surge in anti-social behaviour orders in the area. Ricky isn't surprised. "People don't want us on the streets, but then they take away the only place for us to go, so what do they expect? It feels like we used to have some good things but now they've all been taken away. It always gets taken away."


And in this boarded-up youth club, in Debbie's panic, in the image of Jane and her bump on the floor of the park, I realise I am peering into the reality of David Cameron's "Big Society". The council here told people that if they took away services like this, there would be volunteers; if the state withered away, people would start to provide the services for each other. But nobody opened their home to Jane, or volunteered to feed Debbie, or started a new youth club on their own time and with their own money. The state retreated and the service collapsed. It's a rebranding trick. The Conservatives know that shutting down public services sounds cruel, while calling for volunteerism sounds kind – but the effect is exactly the same. It's as if Marie Antoinette called in Max Clifford, and he told her to stop saying "Let them eat cake" and start saying: "Let them form a workers' co-operative to distribute cake on a voluntary basis."


But it turns out that it's not just the services on the council estates here that are threatened by the council – it's the estates themselves. Recently the leader of the Conservative council, Stephen Greenhalgh, co-wrote a pamphlet called Principles for Social Housing Reform, recommending that Cameron adopt a radical new approach to council housing. He said it provides "barracks for the poor" and helps create "a culture of entitlement", while "deliver[ing] a risible return on assets". He asked: why do we continue to "warehouse poverty in the core of our great cities", on land that is worth good money? Instead of following "the same narrow agenda of 'building more homes'", he said councils should "exploit [the] huge reserve of capital value" in the houses and the land by selling it off and charging "market terms", with some mild subsidy for the very poorest.


He seems to be trying to act on this agenda. He has stopped building any affordable houses for rent, and he is searching for council estates to sell off. I walk to the Queen Caroline Estate along the river, and it is one of the most calm and bright council estates I have ever seen – a walkway of houses and flats lined with trees, all washed over by a gentle river breeze. Teenagers are playing on a football pitch; an elderly couple is watching them, eating sandwiches. Everyone I talk to says they like it – "You've got a good mix of people, and it's so friendly," says one woman. On the other side of the Thames, staring down, is the £25,000-a-year St Paul's School, where Greenhalgh was educated alongside George Osborne in the 1980s.


Greenhalgh has declared that this estate is "not decent", and has offered it for sale to property developers. Maxine Bayliss is a 42-year-old mother who lives here with her two children. She says: "It's frightening to discover there are plans to sell off your home so they can give the land to rich developers. At first the council denied it, but when we challenged them they finally said, yes, we do have plans, actually. One Conservative councillor shouted at me that this was a ghetto and I shouldn't want to live here. Does it look like a ghetto to you? This is my home, it's my children's home. If they charged market rents, people like me would be forced out of London totally. This should be a city for normal people too, not just rich people. It's so insulting to say people like me shouldn't be living here."


Together with a coalition of other mums from the estate, Maxine has formed a group to stop the sell-off. When David Cameron came on one of his visits to the area to cheerlead for the council, she asked him about the threat to her home – and he accused her of "black propaganda". When she explained that the council itself had admitted to having plans, Cameron snapped: "If you don't like them, you should stand for election."


***


Do we want our cities to look like Paris, where the rich own the centre, and the poor are banished to grey concrete slums on the outskirts where they riot with rage once a decade? If we hive out all our housing to the market, that will be our future. Or do we place a value on our land – and who lives there – that is more than purely financial? Do we think some things are more important than the market price? Later that night, I watch Greenhalgh on YouTube, lecturing these single mothers, and I keep thinking about that phrase he is so fond of: "a culture of entitlement". Who has really grown up in "a culture of entitlement": Maxine, who has so little, or Cameron and Greenhalgh, who have so much?


I walk the borough for days, trying to find what Cameron celebrates about this council – until, at the tip of the borough, I find a large grassy metaphor for Conservative priorities that seems so crude that I wonder whether it could have been secretly designed by the Socialist Workers Party cartoonist and plonked in my path. Hurlingham Park was a big vibrant patch of green where kids from the local estates could play, and run on one of the few professional running tracks in the country, in a setting so classically beautiful it was used in the film Chariots of Fire. But then the Conservatives were elected. They handed the park over to a large international polo consortium that has ripped out the running track and shut the park down for a month every year – so rich people can watch polo for hundreds of pounds a day.


Lying in the sun on the edge of the green, I find Nick Anderton, a 17-year-old from the local estate. He stares at it sadly and says: "The park is meant to be for everyone, isn't it? But we have to stop our football now so they can get it ready so these people can play polo, and we won't be able to use it for most of the summer ... My friend used to run on the track every day, he wants to be an athlete, but they got rid of it so he can't now ... It feels like we don't have the right to be here any more. They've taken our park and given it to these snobbish people who've got nothing to do with this area. Look at us. Does it look like we need a polo pitch round here?" Later, I read that Monty Python came to this park to film one of their sketches: "The Upper Class Twit of the Year."


So what is Cameron so proud of here? There seems to be only one answer: in this area the Tories have managed to cut council tax by 3 per cent. They've given back about £20 a year to somebody on an average income, and about four times more to a rich person. That's why, when Cameron was challenged about what has happened here, he said: "When I look at the record of what the Conservatives have done here in Hammersmith and Fulham, far from being embarrassed as the Conservative leader, I'm proud of what they're doing." As I heard this, I remembered that earlier this year Cameron's close friend and shadow cabinet member Ed Vaizey said Cameron is "much more Conservative than he acts, or than he is forced to be by political exigency". The principles that run through Cameron's politics seem to become visible at last, as clear and as stark as the Westway on the Hammersmith skyline: tax cuts, whatever the social cost.


Is wielding the Hammersmith hammer really worth it? Is cutting taxes by a fraction justified if it means abandoning the most desperate people – the homeless, the disabled, the poor? Is that who we want to be? The last time I see her, Debbie Domb tries to move a little in her chair – painfully, slowly – and says: "People should look at what they have done to us in Hammersmith. This is what Cameron and Osborne want to do to Britain. They say so. Remember, the people running this council said before they were elected that they were compassionate Conservatives. I can see the Conservatism. Where's the compassion?"

David Cameron expects the government to let go, and as they are letting go, they expect the general public to volunteer for services which they are going to cut. This simply is never going to happen. As morally righteous as volunteering is, most people do not have to time to do so, so David Cameron's 'Big Society' is a dream which is unachieveable, and one which could put the country is a serious mire.

The article was provided by the good team at Roseview Windows!

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Is External Georgian Bar Expensive For What It Is?

Most items when pricing windows and doors justify their price in my opinion. But one thing that I have always thought was a bit expensive is external Georgian bar. I've had costs ranging from £60 per m2 to £142 per m2, differing from company to company. I understand that the anti-rattle technology is a bit fickle, and that fitters have problems de-glazing them if the bars have been fitted in the factory. But that surely can't justify such a huge increase in cost.

This is made to look worse when you compare it to the internal Georgian bars. These are considerably cheaper, easier to maintain, no de-glazing issues, but the consumer is still able to maintain the Georgian look, without paying through the nose for it. This is the reason why we sell very little of the external bars, and lots of the internal bars. One would have thought that with time, as with all new products and technologies, the price of external Georgian bars would have come down.

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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

BNP And The Lib Dems To Form Coalition Government

God forbid that actually happens. But according to my poll, May 6th would produce a great result for the BNP and Lib Dems.

Thinking critically here, I'm sure the BNP don't have that many supporters, so I'm inclined to think that the same person or people may have voted a number of times. Or maybe I'm wrong, and the BNP do actually have more support than I give them credit for!

Thinking ahead to May 7th, I'll bet all I have on a hung parliament. The polls have suggested it from day one, and they haven't changed much since. In that scenario, we have to hope that the different parties manage to make some sort of agreement and make sure that any uncertainty lasts a very short time.

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Changes To Parts L And F

While my blog has been on hiatus, I've not been able to tell everyone what I think about the Building Regs changes!

It looks like they might have listened to the window industry regarding the trickle vent issue. The message from window companies was that while we are trying to fit the most energy efficient windows possible, trickle vents will only serve to hamper that effort. Also, that trickle vents didn't really provide that much of a benefit as most customers don't like them, and those that do have them keep them closed or seal them up later. It will be interesting to know what Tyson Anderson from Titon makes of this. But one point I'd like to make is that under the changes it says the trickle vent proposal was dropped due to strong pressure from the GGF. I didn't read much about that pressure! I know I made a big deal about it, but I don't for the life of me remember them making it publicly clear they strongly disagreed with it!

The biggest change/confirmation that people were waiting to hear about was the WER banding change of E to C, and the alternative compliance method of showing the window has a minimum 1.6 U-value. Window companies are not going to start exlpaining U-values in depth to customers, so most will opt for the C rating certification, lining the pockets of the GGF.

Those are the main changes that will have the biggest effects on the window industry in the mid-term.

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Monday, May 3, 2010

Month In Review: April

Well I'm back posting on this old .blogspot address for now, something which I didn't intend on doing, but there you go.

April turned out to be a better month than March. Better in terms of leads and sales. But I think this was to be expected as April usually heralds a natural upturn in business due to an improvement in the weather conditions.

May I think will be a strange month. A hung parliament may bring about hesitation and worry in the markets which could filter through to the consumer. If we get an outright result then any economic trouble (providing there is any) caused by a hung parliament can be avoided. However, the polls have suggested right from the beginning that a hung parliament is the most likely result. If on May 7th there is a hung parliament, it will be key for MP's to form a working coalition Government. If so then uncertainty will cause us problems.

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Site Transition Update 2

Just when you think something has gone to plan, bang, problems occur. You will only be able to find this site now at: www.doubleglazingblogger.blogspot.com. The new site is still lost in the data stream somewhere! I'm in the office today so I'm going to spend the next 6 hours or so finding a way to sort it out.

In the mean time I have a lot of posts just waiting to be written, but I'm going to wait until the new site is up and running, which hopefully won't be too long. So expect a flood of verbal diarrhoea when it becomes live!

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