Oliver Granthe’s diary on frustration with evasive local politics and a room that clearly wanted real answers
Standing room only, genuinely, and yet every single question about why energy bills keep climbing despite years of promised green transition got answered with the same recycled talking points about “long-term investment” rather than anything resembling an actual number. I watched three separate people ask variations of the same direct question and get three variations of the same evasive non-answer.
Why This Particular Evening Got Under My Skin
It wasn’t the disagreement itself that bothered me, genuinely, people are entitled to defend policies I think are failing. It was the specific refusal to engage with the actual arithmetic anyone in that room could have checked themselves, choosing vague reassurance over any real accounting of cost.
The Moment the Room’s Patience Actually Ran Out
A retired engineer, clearly having done his own careful maths beforehand, stood and read out specific figures, and watched the panel’s response shift, visibly, from confident talking points to considerably more careful hedging once actual numbers were on the table rather than abstractions.
What I Think This Evening Actually Revealed
I think a lot of current energy policy survives on exactly this kind of comfortable vagueness, and rooms like tonight’s, genuinely engaged, genuinely informed, are precisely where that vagueness starts to visibly crack under real scrutiny.
What I’d Ask For Instead
Straight numbers, honestly delivered, whatever the political cost of admitting them. I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request from people who are actually paying these bills every single month regardless of which party currently holds office.
Where I’m Taking This
I’m writing up the full exchange properly for tomorrow’s piece, because I think readers deserve to see exactly how these evasions actually sound in real time, not summarised, not softened. Further diary entries continue at bohiney.com, with the original piece live at prat.uk.
SOURCE: https://prat.UK/