A few years ago, I was informed that the intelligence level of people in this country was dropping.

For example, watch a quiz programme such as Eggheads and you will see what I mean.

Having been on a trial team, I can assure you that the contestants are briefed not to answer the questions immediately. They have to deliberate and logically dismiss each of the other options before providing their final answer.

Why? Because it gives the people at home a chance to believe that they are brighter than the contestants.

But what if a contestant blurts out the answer? A safety net comes into play whereby the quizmaster asks “are you sure?” or “have you been there?”

My fear of this country dumbing down was increased when I was told that the same batch of questions used on Eggheads is used for In It To Win It.

Which leads me to asking you what is the point of his asking a contestant: “Do you want me to take that as your final answer?”

I hope you can understand then my concern for this country when, in an age where we are all trying to save energy, I see shop doors left wide open in winter with heaters over the door blasting out warm air only for it to waft straight out the door.

Being a chartered design engineer, I can assure you that heaters over doors are not air curtains and they do not stop the cold air coming in.

All these fan heaters are doing is warming the high street and wasting valuable electrical energy.

I can understand that this may not be of any concern for the most part, but think about the charity shops that have the doors open and warm air heaters.

Where do you think they get the money to pay the fuel bills? From the till, and money that should be going to Cancer Research, the British Heart Foundation, Oxfam, you name it, is heading out of the door.

If I said to you take £50 from the till and throw it into the street you would consider me mad, and yet this is precisely what all shops with wide open doors are doing.

If a shop door is not open, people now think the store is closed. We, as intelligent beings, appear to have lost the ability to walk up to a door, read an open sign and open it.

Shop managers and head offices have all advised me that it is not anything at all to do with making the store more accessible to mobilityimpaired shoppers.

It is solely because they get more people through the doors than they do if they have a closed door.

The waste of money is exacerbated by the type of heaters being used. There are convective heaters that warm the air, which rises to a high level and billows out through the doors.

But there are also radiant heaters that simply warm people and objects and do not lead to heat billowing out.

What type of heater do a lot of charity shops and other stores use?

Convector heaters, of course, which throw money, specifically money raised by your donations, out into the street.

As a country, we are trying to save energy, but we have to have open doors just so that people know that a shop is actually open.

I am sorry but this is ludicrous.

JULIAN McCARTHY

New Malden

 



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