The Conservative Party

inbetween said:
At the moment the governments argument to not implement a windfall tax is because it will impact investment. But why will it? Borrowing is still cheap, these companies have ample access to cashflow and not a single public company ever reinvests its profit because they give profit to shareholders as dividends and then they borrow money for investment. So what they're really arguing to protect is the impact on share prices and dividends.

I'm in two minds about a windfall tax, not because I agree with these companies making tons of money but because I think the government will just waste it and so what was the point? I'd much rather force companies to reward employees with profit bonuses or to just pay them more. The company I work for made £2.2bn last year in profit, they've offered us 2.5% this year and it took the unions threatening action to get us to 3.5% which still isn't enough and we're lucky to get anything compared to others!

What we really need, especially in energy, is a proper regulator that monitors gas prices and is dynamic enough to step in to change the price cap where required. We don't have that, instead we have a regulator that responds to daily price fluctuations on an annual basis, it's pathetic and not fit for purpose. If gas prices fall tomorrow by 99% then there is nothing to stop the energy companies from charging me and you yesterday's prices for it. The same has happened to oil, petrol prices are still amongst the highest ever but oil prices fell months ago.

We also have dickheads running our financial system, prime example is that guy at the BoE who actually said that we should reject pay rises to contain inflation. It's literally unbelievable and just shows how completely out of touch the ruling class is who only exist to protect the club they're far too invested in.
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Fair points. I’d not pay a blind bit of attention to what Johnson and co give as their reasons for not doing so, I’d also not be surprised to see them u-turn on this either as they seem to lack the words of their convictions. Or maybe just lack any convictions… oh wait nope they got a few convictions recently
 
metalblue said:
Fair points. I’d not pay a blind bit of attention to what Johnson and co give as their reasons for not doing so, I’d also not be surprised to see them u-turn on this either as they seem to lack the words of their convictions. Or maybe just lack any convictions… oh wait nope they got a few convictions recently
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Or when the Sue Gray report emerges next week.
 
news.sky.com

Boris Johnson under pressure to 'urgently explain' why he privately met Sue Gray to discuss handling of partygate report

Sue Gray and Boris Johnson had a private meeting to discuss the handling of the partygate report, Sky News can reveal. Further details of the meeting are sketchy, with confusion over whether the inclusion of pictures in the report was discussed and who initiated the meeting.
news.sky.com news.sky.com

So basically The Met Police have told The Tories they can do the fuck they want without repercussions
 
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kippaxwarrior said:
news.sky.com

Boris Johnson under pressure to 'urgently explain' why he privately met Sue Gray to discuss handling of partygate report

Sue Gray and Boris Johnson had a private meeting to discuss the handling of the partygate report, Sky News can reveal. Further details of the meeting are sketchy, with confusion over whether the inclusion of pictures in the report was discussed and who initiated the meeting.
news.sky.com news.sky.com

So basically The Met Police have told The Tories they can do the fuck they want without repercussions
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They are getting on with the important stuff - saving Johnsons arse instead of saving the country

news.sky.com

Why expensive energy impacts everything

From salt to fibreglass to tomatoes, Economics and Data Editor Ed Conway takes a deep dive into inflation.
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
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a few days ago the Mail were lamenting this was a world wide issue beyond the control of the Govt and blaming the BoE !!

www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk

Daily Mail Front Page 21st of May 2022 - Tomorrow's Papers Today!

Boris Johnson will lose the next election if he doesn't get a grip on the rising cost of living, according to a poll conducted for the Daily Mail. A large majority of respondents support a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, according to the survey.
www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk
 
bluethrunthru said:
a few days ago the Mail were lamenting this was a world wide issue beyond the control of the Govt and blaming the BoE !!

www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk

Daily Mail Front Page 21st of May 2022 - Tomorrow's Papers Today!

Boris Johnson will lose the next election if he doesn't get a grip on the rising cost of living, according to a poll conducted for the Daily Mail. A large majority of respondents support a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, according to the survey.
www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk www.tomorrowspapers.co.uk
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The same Daily Heil trolling the poor with their "Win your energy bills paid for a year!" Competition.
 
metalblue said:
Fair points. I’d not pay a blind bit of attention to what Johnson and co give as their reasons for not doing so, I’d also not be surprised to see them u-turn on this either as they seem to lack the words of their convictions. Or maybe just lack any convictions… oh wait nope they got a few convictions recently
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The reason they're not doing it is because, according to a No 10 spokesman, It's against tory principles.

They're happy to have millions of people choosing between eating and heating, many contributing to the excess profits of the energy companies as they struggle to afford the costs of going to work, but that's our government for you.

Huingry and cold people are less meaningful than big fat bonuses and dividends.
 
metalblue said:
Nor are Italy and Spain renowned for their oil/gas production. Is there a major producing nation that has introduced a windfall tax.l?

The energy crisis hit long before Russia invade Ukraine they were a result of exiting lockdowns - particularly in Asia. In 2020 oil was actually trading at a negative price - unbelievably they would pay you to take the oil. Shell (as an example) lost $21bn in 2020, BP lost a touch over $20bn. In fact I’d suspect if you averaged out profits 2020-2022 they’ll not be far off 2016-2019. So they aren’t really making excess profits in that sense - although this is an exceptional start to the year and we have a long way to go yet. For reference the oil “war premium” is priced in around $20 a barrel.

Your wider question to what makes excess profits ok for one different to excess profits for another. It’s a fair question. It boils down to a question of fairness, shell/bp/total have been in the oil/gas game for years - through the highs and lows - for PPE we had companies making millions who had never touched PPE previously. They were opportunists, and can have little complaint being hit with an opportunist tax - which is exactly what a windfall tax is. Tax should always have a sense of fairness at its core, although that’s not always the case (eg tax on tampons).

If a fair case can be made to tax these companies more then I’m all ears. But just saying well they’ve earned a tonne of cash in Q1 2022 and we want a part isn’t really a fair case. It may be a worthy cause but there are many worthy causes out there - and these companies are free to make huge donations and create a hardship fund or whatever they want to call it should they so wish (which I would do if I was CEO of one of these btw)
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They could reduce the profit margin on the energy they sell. It's not costing them any more to produce it.
 
metalblue said:
Nor are Italy and Spain renowned for their oil/gas production. Is there a major producing nation that has introduced a windfall tax.l?

The energy crisis hit long before Russia invade Ukraine they were a result of exiting lockdowns - particularly in Asia. In 2020 oil was actually trading at a negative price - unbelievably they would pay you to take the oil. Shell (as an example) lost $21bn in 2020, BP lost a touch over $20bn. In fact I’d suspect if you averaged out profits 2020-2022 they’ll not be far off 2016-2019. So they aren’t really making excess profits in that sense - although this is an exceptional start to the year and we have a long way to go yet. For reference the oil “war premium” is priced in around $20 a barrel.

Your wider question to what makes excess profits ok for one different to excess profits for another. It’s a fair question. It boils down to a question of fairness, shell/bp/total have been in the oil/gas game for years - through the highs and lows - for PPE we had companies making millions who had never touched PPE previously. They were opportunists, and can have little complaint being hit with an opportunist tax - which is exactly what a windfall tax is. Tax should always have a sense of fairness at its core, although that’s not always the case (eg tax on tampons).

If a fair case can be made to tax these companies more then I’m all ears. But just saying well they’ve earned a tonne of cash in Q1 2022 and we want a part isn’t really a fair case. It may be a worthy cause but there are many worthy causes out there - and these companies are free to make huge donations and create a hardship fund or whatever they want to call it should they so wish (which I would do if I was CEO of one of these btw)
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With those losses in 2020 adding to Shell and BPs highly leveraged balance sheets, I wonder why they didn’t campaign for windfall tax credits…
 
Vic said:
Rather, it's remarkable how inherently honest people can vote for this corrupt government.
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People get the government they deserve. Majority of people might be honest but there are a lot of corrupt people about happy enough to vote for corrupt people for personal gain.
 
Vic said:
Rather, it's remarkable how inherently honest people can vote for this corrupt government.
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Inherently honest people may vote for this corrupt government if they are not suffering personally. It's more remarkable that some voters who are suffering from Tory policies will continue to vote for them.
 
I have been saying it forever, the Tories are an incompetent shower of heartless, crooked bastards. And anyone who isn’t from their class and votes for them is a fucking nugget.

On that note Tory voters. I have a selection of Five Magic Beans offers you simply must have

if you think the Tories give a single fuck about you, believing these Five Magic Beans will make you rich is a piece of piss.

Working Class Tories, you canny whack their stupidity.
Brexit, fucking disaster and it’s just begun. Covid utter fucking shambles. Corruption, in a league of their own. Lying bastards, different level. We are where many of us predicted. Wake the fuck up please.
 
East Level 2 said:
Inherently honest people may vote for this corrupt government if they are not suffering personally. It's more remarkable that some voters who are suffering from Tory policies will continue to vote for them.
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I rather think that some people are voting for them in the same way some people follow football teams; they want to be on the side that's winning. They want to say I voted Tory because Labour never win. They don't have a clue about the consequences of their actions because they know nothing about politics or how it works.
 
Magicpole said:
I have been saying it forever, the Tories are an incompetent shower of heartless, crooked bastards. And anyone who isn’t from their class and votes for them is a fucking nugget.

On that note Tory voters. I have a selection of Five Magic Beans offers you simply must have

if you think the Tories give a single fuck about you, believing these Five Magic Beans will make you rich is a piece of piss.

Working Class Tories, you canny whack their stupidity.
Brexit, fucking disaster and it’s just begun. Covid utter fucking shambles. Corruption, in a league of their own. Lying bastards, different level. We are where many of us predicted. Wake the fuck up please.
Click to expand...

Those 5 magic beans will take some time selling due to the amount of paperwork required to get them imported.
 
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