The Green Deal’s ‘Golden Rule’ is no such thing

Once upon a time, there was, locked in a vault, in a basement in the Palais de Decc, in Whitehall Place, the 'Golden Rule'. Like Napoleon's kilogramme and meter, it was a wondrous never changing standard against which everything was measured. It was sacrosanct.

Once many years ago during the negotiation of le Deal Vert, I was honoured to be in the Palais de Decc discussing measures and actions that citizens could use in their hovels, during these negotiations I proffered what I thought were sensible suggestions, but no! 

Each of the discussions was ended with an incantation of the Golden Rule. Showerheads? Don’t be ridiculous: they don’t fit with the Golden Rule. Flow regulators for hot water? 

Don’t be ridiculous: they don’t fit with the Golden Rule. Anything I suggested? Don’t be ridiculous. The Golden Rule was the physical manifestation of pure logic, it was immobile, it was pure. The citizen must be able to recoup every sou of his investment. 

There was no leeway, nothing was left to chance – people might remove a £20 showerhead within 3 months which means they wouldn’t get their money back. I was chastened and abandoned my fanciful ways and stuck to water and kept my nose out of energy and other matters of which I knew nothing. 

Now it appears that there is no Golden Rule under a glass case in a vault under the Palace! It was all made up! It’s not a Golden Rule, it’s more of a Cupronickel Rule. 

It’s a “well customers might be able to get a bit back and of course we were always going to offer subsidies and incentives and the economics isn’t hard and fast Rule”. 

So it appears that the whole Golden Rule thing was yet more Policy Based Evidence Making and the Green Deal was always going to be the “Subsidies for middleclass households to put in insulation Deal”. 

I preferred it when I thought I had been defeated by Napoleonic sheer logic and fact than by “we’ll have a meeting with the annoying idiot but we have already made up our minds anyway”. Now I am just a bit sad and disappointed that they weren’t laying out a new Napoleonic Code, just partially subsidising some cake.