Like me, you’re probably looking through your fingers at your emails every day, waiting for that showstopper from the energy company telling you that your monthly bill is about to become the size of your mortgage payment – and may well increase again later in the year.

Working from home has been the killer for most of us, compounded by the fact that we live on the coast of the north-west periphery of Europe and Scottish winters are far from gentle.

While I don’t want to get into party politics here, I blame Margaret Thatcher. Privatising public utilities and services like the railway would only ever make the rich richer and the poor poorer. But that’s for another day.

And let’s face it, the situation in Ukraine is a multiplying factor. Happily we get most of our energy from Norway, but the fact that Russia controls so much of Europe’s gas is a barely-holstered weapon.

We are all watching events in Kyiv and Moscow, and while of course humanitarian factors are the most important, Russia’s grip on energy is an aggravating factor.

I am sure we all limit our usage and do our best to economise. But even the most parsimonious among us will still struggle because of the outrageous increases in wholesale prices. Working families, the elderly, those less well off – it won’t matter. We’ll all suffer. In the meantime, what are we to do?

I’m delighted to see the new houses being built beside Hermitage Academy on the Cardross Road are fitted with solar panels. That is one way to help deliver cheap and clean energy.

More Helensburgh houses should have them, especially those facing the sea with nothing in the way to block out the sun, other than the weather.

But what about wind farms? Should we start to introduce them on the peninsula? Remember, they don’t have to be permanent – and they can produce masses of power.

To my mind Helensburgh is an ideal place to harness natural energy – in particular wave power.

We need to examine the possibilities for sub-sea wave farms which use the tides to turn motors and generate electricity. There is a massive expanse of foreshore from the pier to Kidston Park which could be developed.

The alternatives don’t bear thinking about. Fracking must be avoided at all costs for a host of reasons. Nuclear power is expensive and controversial.

Do we simply ignore the pledges made at COP26 and keep using fossil fuels until the world sorts itself out? Or let the world sort us out by itself?