Arrrgghhh! Tradesmen!

Well I'm trying to get some electrical work done on my house. I want some sockets put in and the electrical work is just a tad more than I'm allowed to do under the Part P building regulations.

Actually to be honest I really don't want to be chipping away at my own plasterwork either.

So the Government have instituted this dandy new Trustmark scheme under which you can find trustworthy tradesmen. Said so on GMTV so it must be true.

Only you can't.

If you go to electricians, it just gives the numbers of the two tradesbodies. When I rang both neither had heard of Trustmark, and NICEIC flatly denied having anything to do with the scheme had to have a call from trustmark to remind them they administered the scheme.

Trying to find a plasterer through the scheme's main registrar, I drew a blank. A painter, someone as far away as Pudsey, and Cardiff! Glazers found me something equally far away.

And yet the scheme is being trumpeted to high heaven.

The government should have had the man from the Grolsh brewery on the publicity team. "Schtop! Don't publicise this accreditation scheme! It's not ready yet!"