Energy Bills

[scaramanga]

EDF energy is owned by the French state, and they produce 20% of the UK's electricity. Why don't we have state owned utilities?

This is a very simplistic argument, granted. But why do we have a so-called free market in the utlilities that we all need, and that can be easily manipulated by cartel-like behaviour, to the detriment of the consumer?

I'm not calling for a communist state, but a bit of common sense wouldn't go amiss.

Because the profit made by these companies is very small. Small enough to be dwarfed by inefficiency/bureaucracy/strikes etc.

Most of the profit is in wholesale and we produce very little oil/gas to profit at that end.

You also said yourself that it's a free market, so if you don't like it, buy shares in some energy companies and vote for a change. The least you'll do is hedge some of your losses on energy costs.

 

[Spursman]

Just switched to edf saving £185 per year based on what I use.

Went for a fixed plan till March 2015

 

[the dza]

Because the profit made by these companies is very small. Small enough to be dwarfed by inefficiency/bureaucracy/strikes etc.

Is it? I thought that's what all the fuss was about in the first place. If they earn so little, why do they exist? Altruism?

I earn just shy of £14k per year, with a baby on the way. My wife's a non- EU immigrant, unemployed, and (contrary to popular belief) not entitled to benefits (actually termed as "no recourse to public funds"). We get by, but I don't have the spare cash to invest in shares as a hedge against Energy prices.

 

[Baleforce]

state ownership doesn't work as there is no incentive to perform

 

[the dza]

state ownership doesn't work as there is no incentive to perform

And yet state-owned companies control large portions of our own energy industry/utlilities. They just happen to be foreign states.

I don't know, f**k it. I should know better than to talk on the internet about stuff like this, it is utterly pointless. Back to the Spurs news and views board for me, get the Villa game on soon. Have a good afternoon gents.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

And yet state-owned companies control large portions of our own energy industry/utlilities. They just happen to be foreign states.

I don't know, f**k it. I should know better than to talk on the internet about stuff like this, it is utterly pointless. Back to the Spurs news and views board for me, get the Villa game on soon. Have a good afternoon gents.

I think the question you should be asking is why we allowed foreign companies to buy up our energy companies but when we tried to buy up German and French ones in the last couple of years their government put blocks on it despite it being against EU law.

Think the idea is that allowing foreign companies to come in and buy into our energy companies it drives forward competition and an improvement in services. In theory i think it works but you have to have strong politicians and civil servants to see it through and we have neither in this country.

If you know your football and are prepared to wait 20-30 years then i suggest you get a betfair account and slowly build up your money that way, far better then a pension or the stock market.

 

[scaramanga]

Is it? I thought that's what all the fuss was about in the first place. If they earn so little, why do they exist? Altruism?

I earn just shy of £14k per year, with a baby on the way. My wife's a non- EU immigrant, unemployed, and (contrary to popular belief) not entitled to benefits (actually termed as "no recourse to public funds"). We get by, but I don't have the spare cash to invest in shares as a hedge against Energy prices.

They make a lot of money, but it's a very small percentage on a very large market. There's very little room for error.

 

[P.D.]

I checked out that uswitch site and turns out I can save around £200 on my electricity (I only have electricity in my flat) and even better its a fixed price until April 2015 with no cancellation charges and they have to notify me if any other providers would work out £1 a month or more cheaper on average. Result.

 

[Dorothy]

The prices will never come down. The threat of them ever coming down or stabilising means they will only go up now. It is unintentional but quite handy for Millionaireband because he can make it look to those who drink from pot noodle cups that he is saving them money, that the nasty Government don't care knowing full well the utility companies will be fine because they will create a buffer to protect their future profits. So yes they will respond to future talk of price freezes with price raises now.

You also have to understand this:

1.Household usage should be going down if people have any sense.
2. Utility companies still have to achieve stretching targets year on year.
3. Therefore the price per unit has to increase to ensure that these targets can be met.
4. Otherwise shareholders will not get value, investment will slow and workers will have to be laid off.

So in a nutshell you will always pay more unless you start really cutting back or generating your own power. If everyone started to generate their own power then I'm afraid one way or another you would pay a new tax and those that do still need these utilities will pay ridiculous amounts.

The whole financial system, insurance, energy systems, telecoms systems all employ the same model and that is to fleece people quickly on a short term basis. The concept of LTV is now very outdated with these businesses.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Is there anything that isn't Ed Miliband's/Labour's fault? None of the blame shall go to teflon Dave.

 

[Baleforce]

regarding the current state of the uk economy, its pretty much all labours fault yes

 

[Jurgen the German]

Not the bankers fault as well then?

 

[Baleforce]

Not the bankers fault as well then?

in Jurassic park the raptors killed Muldoon and Arnold, was this the raptors fault or does the blame lie with Hammond for not caging them in correctly

obviously my initial statement was sweeping and I'm sure there are many examples where I would agree other factors were more prevalent, however I do believe that both brown and darling were asleep at the wheel and brown especially thought he had found a free lunch

 

[Jurgen the German]

in Jurassic park the raptors killed Muldoon and Arnold, was this the raptors fault or does the blame lie with Hammond for not caging them in correctly

obviously my initial statement was sweeping and I'm sure there are many examples where I would agree other factors were more prevalent, however I do believe that both brown and darling were asleep at the wheel and brown especially thought he had found a free lunch

Like the Jurassic Park reference

 

[Dorothy]

Not the bankers fault as well then?

I believe that happened on Blair and Brown's watch too. The whole political system in the UK needs to be entirely overhauled. The very fact we even have to listen the point of view of a political party that again dragged the country to its ****ing knees shows how ridiculous it all is. A party led by someone like Ed Milliband. It is a crying shame that there is no credible opposition and it is absolutely pathetic that the only way a party in opposition can attack the coalition in power is to do so on a basis of somehow representing the poor and making it a class issue shows how far we need to go to rid ourselves of all of this bull****. Milliband will never lead this country and anyone confused into thinking he has a chance or should in any way hates this Country more than Milliband Senior. Luckily as human beings we do forget things, so busy are we trying to obtain the latest phone, spending money we pretend we don't have voting on X-Factor, or cheating our way to Premier League glory on Championship Manager. There is a chance that after a decade most will have forgotten what New Labour did to Britain, to our public services, did to banking, did to debt, and did to immigration that they might just out of misguided subnormal intelligence actually think about voting for the opposition thinking that largely the same bunch of clowns in different roles will somehow set us on a road to riches.

 

[scaramanga]

Not the bankers fault as well then?

Not really. Until NuLab, banking practices at the outside edge of riskiness were controlled by "the governor's eyebrow". An old but perfectly effective practice whereby someone from the bank would chat about their plans with the governor of the Bank of England - if he so much as raised an eyebrow to the idea, you didn't do it.

NuLab brought in a rule-based system which stated very clearly what you could and couldn't do. What the bankers wanted to do would previously have been frowned upon but was permissible under the rules. So they did it, screwing a lot of people in the process.

 

[SpurMeUp]

i've lived here all my life, I was born here, as were both my parents and all my grandparents, my 2 children were born here as well, and you know what, I hate Britain, this country is a ****ing mess, we're 47th in literacy, 20th in child poverty amongst richer nations and 27th in life expectancy, extreme political parties are picking up more and more votes every year whilst the 2 proper parties play politics rather than try to help, meanwhile no avowed atheist would be voted in as PM due to the hold of the church, for whom gay marriage was a bone of contention, at the first whining from the farmers lobbies we start to kill off our indigenous wildlife and the 2 biggest selling papers (whom we took 2 years to decide shouldn't get away with breaking the law) are the daily mail and the sun, read by people desperate to know who is ****ing who from x factor - what sane reason can anyone have for not hating this country?

There are many great things to Britain. I love many sides of our culture and life. But =D> All true and well put.

The truth is the government has printed eight times the amount of money it thought it would in 2009. Then 50 billion was seen as severe, serious - since they doubled the amount of cash printed, doubled it again and finally doubled it once more! Inflation is happening. Peoples salaries are not going up, the cost of living is and will continue to escalate.

Two questions, when will the public start to react and how? And secondly, when/ will inflation really start to accelerate? If it does we could quickly see 6,7,8% interest rates.

As things are western governments are making the rich richer - banks, traders and those with large amounts of capital who play the markets are making cash as QE helps rally the market. While poor and middle income peoples' savings are eroded to pay for it - inflation is higher than interest rates - which is where governments are making money back. This is okay so long as people don't notice too much and inflation stays manageable.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

I believe that happened on Blair and Brown's watch too. The whole political system in the UK needs to be entirely overhauled. The very fact we even have to listen the point of view of a political party that again dragged the country to its ****ing knees shows how ridiculous it all is. A party led by someone like Ed Milliband. It is a crying shame that there is no credible opposition and it is absolutely pathetic that the only way a party in opposition can attack the coalition in power is to do so on a basis of somehow representing the poor and making it a class issue shows how far we need to go to rid ourselves of all of this bull****. Milliband will never lead this country and anyone confused into thinking he has a chance or should in any way hates this Country more than Milliband Senior. Luckily as human beings we do forget things, so busy are we trying to obtain the latest phone, spending money we pretend we don't have voting on X-Factor, or cheating our way to Premier League glory on Championship Manager. There is a chance that after a decade most will have forgotten what New Labour did to Britain, to our public services, did to banking, did to debt, and did to immigration that they might just out of misguided subnormal intelligence actually think about voting for the opposition thinking that largely the same bunch of clowns in different roles will somehow set us on a road to riches.

I agree with so much of what you say clarky i always have done, but im afraid i have no such faith in the British public and i imagine labour will get in at the next election maybe with a little help from the liberals.

 

[SpurMeUp]

I'm not sure how people can blame one political party when the very near collapse of the western financial system happened globally. Lehman Brothers was the 4th largest US investment bank. How Brown missed its imminent collapse is beyond me 8-[ Not that Lehman's brought down the whole financial system - it revealed the sh1t the financial system was in with mountains of bad debt.

Most of those who have profited from these banks activity and market fluctuations are to the right politically and part of the establishment, in short those who the Conservatives traditionally represent.

Party politics is complete tosh tho and personally I don't even believe in democracy. But that's another story.

 

[Hootnow]

Did I fall asleep and only imagine a worldwide global financial crisis affecting pretty much every country, whether left or right or did Labour somehow cause that as well?

Labour are complete mugs but deary me, I didn't realise just how tribal people were about politics even in the apparently educated West as well.