Category Archives: Energy

The UK supports public ownership of utilities. Why do none of our politicians agree?

Privatisation of public services and utilities has failed dismally. Why do both the Conservatives and the Labour Party under Keir Starmer support it?

Why are they determined to ram it down our throats?

We all know the problems with privatisation:

And we all know the tricks our politicians use to support privatisation:

So we all know that privatisation doesn’t work as a way of providing water, energy, healthcare, rail and bus services and the mail.

And when I say all of us, the polling is conclusive:

Here’s the problem:

At the next general election, neither of the main UK political parties are going to offer public ownership to the people.

You will not be allowed the chance to vote for it.

Don’t you think that’s, well… wrong?

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Your politicians should be seeking election on platforms that have public support, shouldn’t they?

They should have consulted with the electorate and they should be putting forward policies that we feel we can get behind – shouldn’t they?

Has any politician asked you if you support public ownership?

Have any of them asked if you support privatisation?

I’m guessing the answer is no.

Then, why on Earth would you vote for any of them? If they’re not offering what you want – and they very clearly aren’t – you need to find someone else.


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British Gas boss gets £1.6m bonus. Whoever said ‘the wages of sin are death’ was wrong

Money to burn: British Gas.

Why is a utility provider making a 1,000 per cent increase in profits?

It’s inflationary, it’s impoverishing customers… it should be illegal.

No firm of this kind should make profits above a certain – very low – percentage. A huge increase indicates a fault in the company’s pricing system – probably fuelled by greed and opportunism.

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This creep should be in prison, not in clover.


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Cold, damp homes skyrocket estimates of excess deaths

How to heat? For many pensioners this winter, the fire may not be an option and the only heat they are likely to get may be from a cup of tea – even after temperatures plummeted to -14C this week.

An “appalling and avoidable” increase in excess death estimates is due to cold, damp homes, according to a new report:

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition has predicted from the latest government data that 4,950 excess winter deaths in the UK were caused by living in cold, damp homes during winter 2022/23, an increase of 1,721 people compared to estimates from last year.

The latest figures from the Warm This Winter campaign also show that 8.3m adults in the UK are living in cold, damp homes.

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Energy bills have soared in recent years following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and with Ofgem’s energy price cap for January to March 2024 set at £1,928 a year – significantly higher than what it was in October 2021 at at £1,277 ,before the energy crisis began.

Exclusive polling for PoliticsHome in November by Savanta found 32 per cent of people were “very concerned” about whether they would be able to afford they energy bills this winter, with 44 per cent reporting they were “somewhat concerned”. Only 17 per cent said they were “not really concerned”, with just 5 per cent saying they were “not concerned at all”.

Labour is saying this is an indication that people should vote for that party, which is promising a scheme to insulate homes if it forms a government.

The trouble is, under Keir Starmer, Labour has promised a lot of things only to u-turn on them as soon as it is convenient.

Nobody seems to be talking about reducing the price of heating homes – by getting rid of our reliance on fossil fuels altogether and investing in cheap and clean energy.

Is that because it will cut profits for the fossil fuel magnates who pay big donations to politicians in all the major parties?

Source: Labour Says Spike In Cold Deaths Underlines Urgency Of Home Insulation Scheme


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Social energy tariff plan quietly scrapped

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Plans to launch an energy social tariff which would help low income households with energy costs have reportedly been “quietly shelved” by the Government.

The Tory Government first pledged to consider energy social tariffs – which are cheaper tariffs for certain groups – in 2022, and this was doubled down on by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Energy Secretary Grant Schapps last year.

However, Government sources have indicated that social tariffs are “no longer a priority” and that ministers were looking into other ways to help those struggling with energy costs.

The move comes despite calls from charities, organisations and energy companies themselves calling for the introduction of a social tariff for energy. End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said the decision to “abandon plans” for energy bill reform would be a “slap in the face to British households.

Well.

You didn’t really think the Tories would do anything to stop the privateers from fleecing us all, did you?


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Energy bills are increasing – and don’t believe the Tory lies about them

Energy prices are rising by around five per cent from January.

We’ll be paying more for this winter’s energy bills than ever before, even though the rates are cheaper than last winter.

This is because every household received £67 off their energy bill in state support last year and we’re not getting it again this time. The Conservative government seems to have forgotten this bit.

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We’ll be paying on average £28 per month more – between January and March next year – than we did this year.

Here’s Martin Lewis to explain it:


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US plan suggests Gaza offshore gas field rumour is true. But here’s the catch…

It seems there is a huge natural gas field off the Gaza coast, as This Site (and others) discussed shortly after the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel.

We speculated that the hostilities might have something to do with Israeli plans to seize any such gas field for its own financial reward.

It turns out that a deal to exploit the gas was signed by Israel – in June.

Now US President Joe Biden wants to talk with Israel about revitalising Gaza‘s economy using this resource.

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Here’s a pertinent comment on that:

Are we to take it that this is a plan for Israel and the United States to share ill-gotten gains from their war against Gaza, after all the Palestinian people there have been either killed or expelled?

Let’s just have a reminder of what US aid to Israel has been buying over the last few weeks:

Is that a persuasive argument?


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New game: name all the ways the Tory government INTERFERES with your life

Tory interference in our lives: anti-protest laws were rushed into practice before the Coronation, so the police could be used to arrest peaceful protesters and take them off the streets.

I seem to have started something.

Yesterday (September 21), in response to Rishi Sunak’s televised trashing of non-existent ‘Net Zero’ policies which he justified by saying, “We’re making sure government stays out of your life,” I made a couple of points about how government does exactly the opposite:

Look at your energy bill. In return for the payments you make, you receive energy that comes from a number of different sources, including some that are highly polluting. For example: coal, nuclear, gas.

On a separate but related subject, look at the amount of plastic packaging you buy in your everyday grocery shopping, much of which is unnecessary and can end up polluting the environment.

These things happen because the government allows it. Indeed, among Sunak’s measures yesterday was a plan to continue allowing the sale of polluting petrol- and diesel-powered cars for an extra five years, until 2035. Who knows what some future prime minister will do then? Extend it to 2040?

Those are three ways the government interferes with our lives, right there.

But of course, I was missing the really big things that have happened lately. Here’s Peter Stefanovic:

Perhaps we should open this up for everybody to have a say?

You could make a game of it at home: sit in a circle with everybody challenged in turn to name a way the government interferes with their life.

If you are so disposed, it could be a drinking game, with people failing to think of an example taking a sip of their substance of choice (it doesn’t have to be alcohol).

It’ll help pass these lengthening autumn evenings.

And it will help remind us all of what hideous liars the Tories in our government are.


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The human cost of high energy bills? Nearly 5,000 have died in damp, cold homes

Nearly 5,000 more people died in 2022-23 because their homes were damp and cold. That was the winter when energy bills skyrocketed.

While the energy firms made billions of pounds in profit, Rishi Sunak’s Tory government claimed to be doing all it could to ensure that ordinary people would not freeze.

It seems whatever Sunak did, it was not enough.

Here’s the Morning Star, which had the earliest report I’ve found so far:

Almost 5,000 people in Britain died last year as a result of living in cold and damp homes, an analysis of official data revealed today.

The figures, compiled by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition… calculated that of the 21,890 excess winter deaths in 2022-23, 21.5 per cent were caused by living in cold homes.

It comes as a report card by the Warm This Winter campaign on the government’s progress against its eight key measures to tackle the energy bills crisis, including providing financial support for those most in need, has revealed that on half of these, ministers are making no progress.

The report card found that on one measure, the government has taken backwards steps that will deepen the country’s reliance on expensive fossil fuels by failing to reduce Britain’s gas exports.

We all knew that we couldn’t rely on the Tories to protect vulnerable people against rampant corporate profiteering, and this is exemplary of what happens when they are asked to try.

Tories are rabid social Darwinists anyway; they probably think the deaths of your relatives and friends are a good thing for the country. But:

Every time you hear about energy firms’ profits, remember they are built on the deaths of 5,000 people.

Source: Nearly 5,000 people in Britain died last year due to damp and cold homes, analysis finds | Morning Star


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Why are the Tories trying to hide energy bill misery for those who use the least?

The hard fact for the poorest people: while headline energy costs are falling, the price for those who can least afford to pay is rising unaffordably.

Average energy bills will fall slightly in the three months from October – to £1,923 a year for the typical household, the regulator Ofgem has said

This is a drop of £151 on the current annual energy bill for a typical household, which is currently £2,074.

But there are complications!

The drop is in the price per unit of electricity and gas, and standing charges – that are charged daily regardless of energy use, are set to rise to recoup the costs associated with the wave of supplier failures, consumer defaults, and additional support to shore up energy companies’ finances.

This means people who use less energy – logically, poorer people – will end up paying more for it.

The Resolution Foundation has explained the situation in a press release here. I’ll pull out the important bits:

Any family with an energy consumption less than four-fifths of the average will see higher bills this winter than last, a situation that applies to around one-in-three (35 per cent) of households in England and close to half (47 per cent) of those in the lowest income decile.

For some, these extra costs will be substantial: 13 per cent of households (2.7 million families) face energy bills rising by more than £100 this winter, a figure that rises to one in four (24 per cent) for the poorest households.

The removal of the flat £400 Energy Bill Support scheme, which was paid out in monthly instalments over winter 2022 to all households, regardless of income or energy consumption, is in effect putting upward pressure on every household’s bill this winter.

Whether a household faces a lower bill this winter depends on whether the lower per-unit prices provide savings that outweigh the higher standing charges and removal of the £400 support.

The Resolution Foundation expects 7.2 million households will end up paying more, with 2.7 million spending more than £100 more on gas and electricity bills – including 24 per cent (almost a quarter) of those in the poorest 1/10 of families.

The Conservative government doesn’t care about this increased pressure on the poorest.

Here’s Tory mouthpiece Andrew Bowie (he’s an under-secretary for “Nuclear and Networks”, whatever that means), refusing to discuss the issue with the BBC’s Naga Munchetty and determinedly trying to force the subject back to the reduction in bills for the very richest people:

We may draw just one conclusion from this:

Conservative government energy policy is to make the poorest pay the most (as a proportion of their available funds). They are using energy bills to create poverty.


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Chris Packham’s rallying call for YOU to demand real action against global warming

This speaks for itself – and urges you to speak for yourself:

Chris Packham goes deeper into the issue in an interview with Politics Joe:

Do you think you might?


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