Scottish Power is up to its old call-calling tricks – and so are UK cancer charities

Scottish Power, a UK energy company which has been hauled over the coals numerous times by the UK energy regulator for mis-selliing – to no effect, obviously – is up to its old tricks.

Tonight I got a call from some Herbert in one of its call centres – at 8.50pm – inviting me to discuss Scottish Power.

Now I’ve never given anyone at Scottish Power my phone number; obviously someone else has sold it to them. But I thought this kind of cold calling wasn’t allowed?

Every so often the likes of Scottish Power – which, I gather, isn’t Scottish at all but is owned by Spanish outfit Iberdrola – gets fined for its misdemeanours. I said to the guy from the call centre: “why are you calling me at this time of night?” And he said: “because I’m working the 8-12 shift.”

On Saturday, just as I was sitting down to watch a re-run on BBC4 of Inspector Montalbano (the dickheads at the Beeb have decided that BBC4 doesn’t have a commissioning budget any more) I got a call from a well-known UK cancer charity. Unfortunately I can’t remember which one (there are two or three).

At nine on a Saturday! I hadn’t given them my number either, but that didn’t stop them calling. I couldn’t be fagged to point out that the great British public has been giving cancer charities zillions of pounds for decades with no evidence, so far, of a cure for the wretched disease (or symptom, really).

Yet there’ve been lots of senior staff at established UK cancer charities who’ve done very well out of it over the years; probably sitting in the House of Lords now.

This stuff is outrageous: such outfits should be hammered with huge fines and their executives should be hauled up in court.