The Conservative Party

[mat]

Only been in the job half a day and Mr Hari already the news story.

 

[Len Rum]

Only been in the job half a day and Mr Hari already the news story.

Do I not believe some of the quotes attributed to Hari about BoJo - " He's not a COMPLETE clown"......
And there's more.
Tell me this isn't true.
I thought they were supposed to be sharpening up their operation?

 

[metalblue]

With this government in charge we would be mismanaging the pandemic response and the energy crisis irrespective of our EU status. As the main focus of this discussion is the energy crisis, are there any other EU countries that are allowing fuel prices to rise by as much as we are? The answer is a resounding no.

Saying the leave lot probably told a few porkies is equivalent to saying Donald Trump might have told a few lies.

I think you could level that charge at pretty much most of the governments in Europe. It’s hard to compare government responses to energy costs when there are varying degrees of impact to the population. For example in Germany the rise in energy costs for households is around 63% versus here in the UK it’s 46% - we all have the same input costs so that is down to government taxes (the Germans pay 6% electricity tax and 16% VAT - plus 21% for renewal investment - in our bills we pay 5% VAT and just over 15% for renewables and social obligations). So obviously the German government would have to do “much more” just to match the UK and they aren’t even close to that with their measures announced so far.

The only European country that has obviously done “better” than everyone else on the energy issue is France but they’ve also just about signed EDFs death warrant by passing on £9bn worth of debt from the public to the national energy provider - perhaps it’s an election year or summit.

I did read earlier with a wry smile that the government wanted to put a Union Jack on the AZ vaccine bottles. The cheeky tub thumpers.

 

[metalblue]

We are in the position where the government is limited in what it can do to help energy consumers in this country for many reasons in addition to just the economic constraints brought about by the pandemic. Fairly high on the list was the government's decision to allow the energy companies to shut down nearly all the strategic gas reserve over the last 10 years.
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Half of our gas is imported which is at the mercy of the wholesale market price. The government has consciously decided to do nothing about the other half of our gas which is produced in the North Sea and is allowing the energy companies to make massive profits rather than implementing a windfall tax which could be used to subsidise consumers.

Also they have been reluctant to allow much exploitation of shale gas which could have made us less dependent on imports, however even if they had, the precedent of allowing the North Sea gas producers to make massive profits would presumably been applied to the shale gas producers.

The bottom line is that we are facing rises of 50-100% in our energy costs as a result of our government getting us into a bad position to start with and dogmatically refusing to exercise what discretion it does have to alleviate things slightly, other than a few headline items which are window dressing in the scheme of things.

On the plus side my Shell and BP shares are doing well ;-)

Gas storage is a misnomer. Even if we had retained our storage facilities it would be enough to provide the country for a week - so would have had zero impact on prices. So not high on the list of issues at all. It would be useful if Russia decided to switch off the pipe for a few days mind ;)

 

[Bodicoteblue]

To be fair, why would anyone get over something where the true costs of it are only just starting to be felt (not talking about energy there)

If only Titanic had got over hitting the iceberg and just moved on…….

 

[west didsblue]

I think you could level that charge at pretty much most of the governments in Europe. It’s hard to compare government responses to energy costs when there are varying degrees of impact to the population. For example in Germany the rise in energy costs for households is around 63% versus here in the UK it’s 46% - we all have the same input costs so that is down to government taxes (the Germans pay 6% electricity tax and 16% VAT - plus 21% for renewal investment - in our bills we pay 5% VAT and just over 15% for renewables and social obligations). So obviously the German government would have to do “much more” just to match the UK and they aren’t even close to that with their measures announced so far.

The only European country that has obviously done “better” than everyone else on the energy issue is France but they’ve also just about signed EDFs death warrant by passing on £9bn worth of debt from the public to the national energy provider - perhaps it’s an election year or summit.

I did read earlier with a wry smile that the government wanted to put a Union Jack on the AZ vaccine bottles. The cheeky tub thumpers.

Not sure where the 46% is from. I'm already paying 4p per KWh, up from 3.15p for gas because my deal ended and company went bust meaning I couldn't move to a new fixed deal. So that's 27% already. In April the price cap for gas goes from 4p to 7p which will be another 75%. Basically I'll be paying double. Electricity is not quite as bad but not far off.

 

[mat]

Do I not believe some of the quotes attributed to Hari about BoJo - " He's not a COMPLETE clown"......
And there's more.
Tell me this isn't true.
I thought they were supposed to be sharpening up their operation?

He allegedly said this stuff in a Welsh language magazine article. The claim Boris said he should "Take the knee" for Guto was the one that got me facepalming.

I think Johnson got the wrong bloke. He got this:

When he wanted this:

 

[mat]

We'll done Johnson!

Everyone is talking about energy prices over more alleged parties you've been too!

 

[metalblue]

Not sure where the 46% is from. I'm already paying 4p per KWh, up from 3.15p for gas because my deal ended and company went bust meaning I couldn't move to a new fixed deal. So that's 27% already. In April the price cap for gas goes from 4p to 7p which will be another 75%. Basically I'll be paying double. Electricity is not quite as bad but not far off.

From Labour (Ed Miliband) who estimate the typical bill will rise from £1,277 to £1,865.

£1,277 x 46% = £588
£1,277 + £588 = £1,865

I mean they might be telling porkies but I thought it was only the Tories who lied

 

[west didsblue]

Gas storage is a misnomer. Even if we had retained our storage facilities it would be enough to provide the country for a week - so would have had zero impact on prices. So not high on the list of issues at all. It would be useful if Russia decided to switch off the pipe for a few days mind ;)

Current storage gives us a week. Previous storage gave us 2 or 3 months which would get us over the high demand months. Because we're so limited on storage we have to pay through the nose on the open market rather than bide our time and get better deals when demand is down after the winter.