The wheel turns...

So several of the big energy suppliers are introducing fixed price deals whereby you pay a fixed monthly amount irrespective of how much electricity and gas you use.  Well, plus ça change and all that.  I used to be on something called Staywarm which worked the same way.  It started out in the early 2000s as a government initiative aimed specifically at pensioners and slowly wound down and became more restrictive until it was finally withdrawn in 2013.  It's true that you might have found you could get cheaper deals, but the way I saw it was you were paying for peace of mind - if it dropped cold, you didn't have to think twice before turning the heating up, because you knew it wouldn't cost you any more.  It seemed too good to be true, and in the end, sadly proved to be so.