Mustn't Grumble

With a quarter of England and Wales at risk of fuel poverty, a twenty-six per cent rise in complaints over the last three months has led to much heartache among the Big Six energy cartel. EDF brought in a new billing system, failed to explain it properly to its customers, and then brought further opprobrium upon itself by economising on its call centre staff. EDF is one of only three members of the hypothermia profiteers' big society whose performance has got "notably worse" since they cheered everyone up with a comedy turn about rebuilding trust. Overall, the energy companies have introduced gas and electricity price rises of up to 19% in order to prevent valuable executives emigrating to Dubai; but Vincent de Rivaz, chief executive of EDF, complained in September that sympathetic comprehension had not been forthcoming from "the public, customers in general, politicians, regulators and others" - in short, that virtually everybody except the aforementioned executives was too stupid to understand how nice and convenient the whole arrangement was.