Fixed! A rant.

British Gas has just been fined £2.5 million.

Hey, that's even more than my gas bill. Well, it was last time I checked, anyway.

British Gas has got into trouble for not replying to customers' complaints, that sort of thing. People are also complaining (how justly I don't know) about misleading tariffs and hidden charges.

I can't imagine why any of this should be a surprise, because British Gas has been very frank about its practices. Why, British Gas put a leaflet through my door the other day which proclaimed in large blue letters:

Our boiler installation quotes are fixed.

So what do people expect, then?

Word To Use Today: fix. (Though guaranteed is probably the word towards which British Gas was groping.) Fix is a lovely word which can of course mean mended, unchanging, or fiddled. 

The word fix comes from the Middle English fixen, and before that from Latin fīxus, from fīgere, to fasten.

(You know, the thing that really gets my goat is someone must have been paid to come up with that slogan.
Hey, I wonder if there's an opening for a Say What You Mean Consultant? I'd be very happy to oblige. For a consideration, naturally.)