From The Economist, March 12:
Thanks to a fashion for wood fires, not “Mary Poppins”
A TRADE often associated with “Mary Poppins” and Edwardian London is proving remarkably resilient. A pandemic and costly energy have helped rekindle Britons’ love of domestic fires. And a new cohort of chimney sweeps is cleaning up.
In the six years since covid-19 struck, Britons have bought around 1m wood-burning stoves, according to data from the Stove Industry Association (SIA). One in 14 households now owns one. Demand has been driven by a spike in gas prices following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and by a growing appreciation of the fragility of power grids in times of crisis, says Martin Glynn, president of the National Association of Chimney Sweeps. Its membership has tripled over the past 15 years to 760, including 42 female sweeps.
Paul Solicari joined the trade in 2013 in his late 20s after a stint in hospitality. He reckons his firm, SweepSmart, with six employees, is among the biggest in Britain. Most sweeps are one-person local operations, he explains, taking a break from checking the flues at a home in north London—a process that nowadays uses cameras rather than children. Chimney sweeping requires no accreditation. Demand is seasonal. “You can’t hire enough people to deal with the demand in winter but also keep them busy in the summer. That’s why it’s so hard to grow,” says Mr Solicari. The business has proved immune to the sort of private-equity roll-up that has consolidated Britain’s small veterinary practices, legal firms and accountants....
....MUCH MORE
Finland rejoices (maybe Russia too if sanctions are lifted).
From Nov. 2012:
Mocking Europe's Energy Policy: "Putin invites Europeans to Siberia for firewood"
From RT:
European countries should pursue a balanced energy policy, otherwise they will have to buy the firewood in Siberia, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has joked.
Putin made it clear again that Europe and Russia are dependent on each other. He was speaking with German businessmen in Berlin on Friday. They gathered at a business conference organized by the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung.
“The German public does not like the nuclear power industry for some reason,” Putin said, adding that he would not comment on it. “But I cannot understand what fuel you will take for heating,” he said anyway.
“You do not want gas, you do not develop the nuclear power industry, so you will heat with firewood?” Putin asked, as reported by Itar-Tass. “Then you will have to go to Siberia to buy the firewood there,” he said, adding that Europeans “do not even have firewood.”
Good yuks from the old propagandists at the former Russia Today.
