Does [url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2531291/What-happened-Blitz-spirit-Kirstie-Allsopp-says-storm-victims-spent-Christmas-without-electricity-spoilt-getting-compensation.htmlKirstie[/url have a point? Have we, as a nation lost that essential streak of resolve that was typified by Londoners during the Blitz? That very British stubbornness of simply dealing with the situation, without making a song and dance about it, like so many of the more theatrical Nations. Have we in an instant communication World, become used to a quick fix solution to all our problems, with a pouty mouthed demand that not only should someone bear responsibility, but we should also receive compensation for our inconvenience?

I watched a news clip, where a woman became quite agitated, not so much that her power had been off for a couple of days, but she hadn't been kept informed as to when it would be restored! I kid you not! If I was up a ladder, in all weathers, attempting to fix and restore a power line, and some local was tugging at my trouser leg demanding to know just when she could get on with her life, I doubt the response would be too diplomatic!

Wouldn't have happened under Maggie.....

A touch of irony that the article is in the Mail, renowned for being utterly hysterical in order to whip up the masses into a frothing frenzy?

Standards are slipping at The Mail, possibly because their regular journos are on xmas break, I mean, they have not mentioned her dress size once in that article or her ample buso-oom.

Its because of the profit is first, do everything on the cheap, privatisation is best dogmatic system that the woman and her cronies created.

This a very big part of the mess the country is in at the moment on so many levels and this kind of rubbish goes a long way to prove it.

How droll. And would the good people of Humberside be whipped up into a frenzy if the article had been carried by the Hull Daily Mail instead?

Since she was never part of the blitz how the hell would she know what blitz spirit was.
It sounds rather gay ... blitz spirit anyone?
Make mine a double!

On a serious note, I had no idea people had lost their power because they were being bombed ... now that IS terrible.

You could always ask them (no point asking me, I don't live there).

Only thing I do know is its not been Humberside for a long time

This from the daughter of a tory peer, who has never known hardship or deprivation in her entire life?

Imagine the temerity of those paying for a service to actually expect compensation for being deprived of that service? Of course contingencies should have been made, the company profiting from providing the "service" should be the ones making those contingencies however, not the customers.

Allslop is correct in one respect though, there are millions who subsist on little electricity, there are also millions who subsist on a low-calorie food intake too, maybe if she followed their lead she could shift some of that blubber she's carrying.

I think the point she was making was about getting compensation rather than feeling downhearted or otherwise upset by being without electricity/being flooded out for Christmas. That she was making such a point so soon after the event was a little insensitive to say the least but I do think that she has a point. People seek compensation now for pretty much anything and everything, which probably shows up something other than the theatrical in our culture.

As for a Blitz spirit, some of the people interviewed did indeed show such a spirit. They were clearly upset by what had happened but could also recognise that it was nobody's fault that the wind blew at 80mph and felled trees which landed on power lines or that bucket loads of rain swelled the rivers to the degree where they overtopped and flooded houses. There was the couple who planned to barbeque their turkey, another family who had moved the fridge upstairs and ate their Christmas dinner in their son's bedroom. Then there was the woman who took her turkey to a community get together at a place which still had power and shared it out. Those individuals when interviewed suggested that the Blitz mentality is still alive and well, albeit possibly in the minority of people. I found those people heartening to listen to.

I agree, but that culture has been actively encouraged by the right and the free market. Every time we turn something, be it a service like the post, energy, healthcare, bus etc into simply yet another product like a DVD then we expect the same level of compensation when that thing doesn't work.

Given the ridiculous increases in energy bills over the last few years damn right I would want compensation if the service that I had paid an extortionate amount of money for was not provided.

On the other hand if you've not been able to use any electricity for five days then you won't have been charged for any either, the only compensation you should be "entitled" to is five days worth of any standing charges, which is going to be pretty feeble.

Compensation would also need to take in to account any losses or expenditure incurred due to the energy company failing to provide the service they are being paid for e.g freezer full of food, stay in a hotel outside the affected area. It's not as if the energy companies can't afford it.

And how much compo would a grasping individual from Wigan expect for a freezer full of pies? let me briefly shine a light into your murky world......

There is a certain level of Service you can expect from your Supplier, and when they are a fault, for instance digging a trench up your street and the numpty in the high viz rips up your electricity cable/water pipe/gas main, then obviously all costs in the repair should be borne by the appropiate Contractor, and possibly a small amount of compensation offered as well as an apology.

Where the Guaranteed Standards don't apply:

[iThere are some exceptions to the Guaranteed Standards compensation schemes. For example, the company may not have to make a compensation payment for any of the following reasons:

severe weather makes it impossible to restore the supply
strikes or industrial action
you’re out when the energy company visits and you knew they were coming
you cancel an appointment.[/i

Common sense really......

As far as the freezer is concerned you can bet your last pound that the power supplier would refer you to your own home insurers and if you suddenly decided for yourself to pack up and go stay in a hotel just because there was no electricity at your home through days where the temperature never dropped below a balmy 5 degrees then again you'd have to have a damn good reason for having done so before their insurers would cough up.

I used to know someone who was a kidney patient and did self dialysis at home - his whole street was on a priority list because of him and on a couple of occasions when they wanted to switch the power off for maintenance they had to come and ask him first

The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes.

So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?

Plus what was the alternative during the Blitz? Walk out of the shelter and ask the Germans for compensation?

The last time we extracted compensation from Germany it didn't particularly help that much.

Quote ="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Look at how the Daily Mail reported it: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... pirit.html Loose women, looting and murder. Of course the Daily Mail ranks loose women as the main problem there.... Quote Sexual desire, especially in women, was much intensified during the Blitz. A number of men complained to me about their wives making excessive demands, and I know of very many who were unfaithful to their husbands'" Disgraceful women wanting sex during the war. "Broken Britain" in a nutshell. Quote Looting was the shameful antithesis of the Blitz spirit about which very little was reported at the time, so detrimental was it thought to be to the nation's morale - and it was widespread. 'I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941. Some looters were bomb-chasers: when a raid was on, they would converge on a target area and smash shop windows as the bombs fell and official attention was distracted and the streets empty. The Blitz, like the blackout, provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activities - in one case, a murder was passed off as a death in an air raid: pickpocketing was rife and racketeers charged exorbitant sums for 'reserving' a place in a shelter. People made false claims for the loss of ration books or ID cards, or said they had been bombed out when they hadn't: one Wandsworth man claimed to have been bombed out 19 times in five months before the authorities realised his game and he was sent to prison for three years in February 1941. Many looters were petty criminals who found the Blitz provided unprecedented opportunities. Others were in the right place at the right time, pouncing when they saw watches, jewellery, radios and cartons of cigarettes spilling out from the windows of a bombed shop.'" Sounds like August 2011 riots to me I wonder if these were a result of genuine concern about mass immigration?

Quote ="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Look at how the Daily Mail reported it: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... pirit.html Loose women, looting and murder. Of course the Daily Mail ranks loose women as the main problem there.... Quote Sexual desire, especially in women, was much intensified during the Blitz. A number of men complained to me about their wives making excessive demands, and I know of very many who were unfaithful to their husbands'" Disgraceful women wanting sex during the war. "Broken Britain" in a nutshell. Quote Looting was the shameful antithesis of the Blitz spirit about which very little was reported at the time, so detrimental was it thought to be to the nation's morale - and it was widespread. 'I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941. Some looters were bomb-chasers: when a raid was on, they would converge on a target area and smash shop windows as the bombs fell and official attention was distracted and the streets empty. The Blitz, like the blackout, provided cover for all sorts of nefarious activities - in one case, a murder was passed off as a death in an air raid: pickpocketing was rife and racketeers charged exorbitant sums for 'reserving' a place in a shelter. People made false claims for the loss of ration books or ID cards, or said they had been bombed out when they hadn't: one Wandsworth man claimed to have been bombed out 19 times in five months before the authorities realised his game and he was sent to prison for three years in February 1941. Many looters were petty criminals who found the Blitz provided unprecedented opportunities. Others were in the right place at the right time, pouncing when they saw watches, jewellery, radios and cartons of cigarettes spilling out from the windows of a bombed shop.'" Sounds like August 2011 riots to me I wonder if these were a result of genuine concern about mass immigration?

Romantic? Seriously? I'm sure you would agree, that only a complete cretin would suggest that the courage and resolve shown by a deeply traumatised civilian population, who were subjected to an unprecedented nightly campaign of terror, could be described in any way as "romantic"

I would have thought also, even the most blinkered can appreciate the difference between the stoic British response, and the entirely predictable antics of the criminal elements who took advantage of the situation.

Churchill called it right...."They have sewn the wind, and shall reap the whirlwind".... As Dresden typified later.

You are aware that romantic doesn't just mean Mills & Boon?

I'd be very surprised if he had any concept of what romantic means whatsoever. Or any direct experience either.

Quote ="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Those events did of course occur as you correctly point out. Though not an everyday event. People caught doing it were kicked the f**k out of. Another piece of Blitz spirit This may be of interest to some. The records of strikes on the first day of the blitz. I know so many of those places: www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... -1940#data If anyone is a member of the Guardian and Observer digital archive, could you kindly let us know the Guardian's report on that night. It's online, and you can get to it through that link.

Quote ="Mintball"The 'Blitz spirit' included, in reality, looting and various other crimes. So, once away from the romantic idea, perhaps she's suggesting that's what's missing?'" Those events did of course occur as you correctly point out. Though not an everyday event. People caught doing it were kicked the f**k out of. Another piece of Blitz spirit This may be of interest to some. The records of strikes on the first day of the blitz. I know so many of those places: www.theguardian.com/news/datablo ... -1940#data If anyone is a member of the Guardian and Observer digital archive, could you kindly let us know the Guardian's report on that night. It's online, and you can get to it through that link.

He doesn't even appear to comprehend that I was not referring to those who lived through the Blitz, but to a subsequent perception of it.

"I lost more through looting than by bomb damage,' said one London trader in 1941."

From Sally's quoted and linked-to story.

Said ONE london trader. I already said it happened, what more do you want?

Did you look up to see if where you live got pummelled.

One of the more interesting stories I was told by a Lewisham resident many years ago was that Lord Haw Haw announced on the radio that they knew a downed Messerschmitt was being displayed in Chieseman's window. That night Lewisham and Chiesman's were hit.

Are you signed up to Guardian archives? I'd love to know how t was reported.