The banker loving, baby-eating Tory party thread (regenerated)

[Davkaus]

20 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I'm in no way an expert, but I thought a lot of the problem was down to a] we have almost no gas storage in the country, and b] that fire at an interconnector?

Certainly big factors (plus our nuclear sites undergoing maintenance). I believe half of the capacity at that interconnector will be back up in the next week or two, but it won't be back up and running fully until March.

[Davkaus]

As an aside, most of that gas storage was taken offline and not replaced over the last decade. Don't need it, mate. 

For every budget cut to frontline services that generate headlines, assume there's been another couple to boring topics in the background. Infrastructure investments have been kicked down the road or cut entirely, aided by it being boring, and nobody caring. This is a decade of tory rule coming home to roost. 

[HanoiVillan]

4 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

As an aside, most of that gas storage was taken offline and not replaced over the last decade. Don't need it, mate. 

For every budget cut to frontline services that generate headlines, assume there's been another couple to boring topics in the background. Infrastructure investments have been kicked down the road or cut entirely, aided by it being boring, and nobody caring. This is a decade of tory rule coming home to roost. 

Same phenomenon (this example from the Cameron non-coalition period, when they were at their absolute worst for it):

 

[HanoiVillan]

Probably a boring post, but:

It's very bad that ministers keep ignoring and sidelining Parliament. At the same time, though, while he's getting 'exasperated' Lindsey Hoyle should reflect that this is happening in part because he's such a weak speaker.

EDIT:

Also, LOL at this:

Edited September 20, 2021 by HanoiVillan

[Davkaus]

Those certainly are some interesting red lines. Are we also getting a free unicorn with every tariff?

As I understand it, either:

• Prices go up significantly - which seems to be precluded by  "price cap is staying", but... "the price cap is still there, it's just trebled"
• The government bails out the energy companies which they've ruled out - but perhaps they'll spin it as "they're not bailed out we've just given them billions in loans"
• We let them go bust - but this enables them oligopoly.
• They magic up a solution which drops energy prices overnight. This sounds like a job for Failing Grayling. 

Without significant intervention, we're likely to see see literally all but the big 5 go under within the next 6 months, so it'll be interesting to see which flavour of weasel words the government delivers. 

 

 

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, Davkaus said:

Those certainly are some interesting red lines. Are we also getting a free unicorn with every tariff?

As I understand it, either:

• Prices go up significantly - which seems to be precluded by  "price cap is staying", but... "the price cap is still there, it's just trebled"
• The government bails out the energy companies which they've ruled out - but perhaps they'll spin it as "they're not bailed out we've just given them billions in loans"
• We let them go bust - but this enables them oligopoly.
• They magic up a solution which drops energy prices overnight. This sounds like a job for Failing Grayling. 

Without significant intervention, we're likely to see see literally all but the big 5 go under within the next 6 months, so it'll be interesting to see which flavour of weasel words the government delivers. 

 

 

I assume, possibly incorrectly, that 'customers must be protected from price spike' and 'energy price cap is staying' have the same meaning, which is as you say 'the price cap is still there but massively higher', and then some backdoor loans to small energy companies, which would helpfully socialise the risks that might have been assumed to be inherent in running a small energy company that aggressively competed on price. Alternatively, they let them fail, and the loans go to the big energy companies as a sweetener for taking so many new customers.

[Davkaus]

I'd let as many as possible go bust and nationalise the lot, tbh. And I'd be shooting myself in the foot because I started work at an energy tech services company a couple of weeks ago (timing, eh? two of our customers have just gone bust!).

They don't **** do anything. They don't make or distribute the gas or electric. We've created an entire industry of duplicate work, "competing" companies  that at best all just create their own website and customer service infrastructure, pointless busy work that benefits nobody, and at worse, as you say, speculate recklessly in such a way that undercuts responsible businesses until the inevitable happens.

The supply of energy is a natural monopoly, what's the point of having this entire industry of customer service on top of it? Are we really meant to believe that the competition which requires this entire extra layer of investment and labour is actually bringing the prices down? It's nonsense. They're companies and jobs that shouldn't exist.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Davkaus

[Genie]

It wasn’t that long ago Centrica was under pressure because it was racking up multi billion pound profits off the back of the British public.

[Genie]

My account with The People’s Energy (who went bust last week) is now transferred to British Gas.

Look After my bills seem to be on the case and telling me not to agree to any fixed prices with them until they’ve checked the market.

[Davkaus]

You'll be alright, SoLR terms prohibit them from putting you on a tariff with exit fees.

[Genie]

9 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

You'll be alright, SoLR terms prohibit them from putting you on a tariff with exit fees.

Yeah, I’m pleased LOMB are all over it and already scanning the market. I was a on a brilliant deal the last 12 months so it’s gonna be a bit of a sting now, then the extra NI in the new year. General inflation all over the place.

If the employer demands i start going into the office daily I’m gonna be hundreds a months down. 

P0rnhub is still free right? Or have the Tories ruined that too.
 

Edited September 20, 2021 by Genie

[Seat68]

23 minutes ago, Genie said:

My account with The People’s Energy (who went bust last week) is now transferred to British Gas.

Look After my bills seem to be on the case and telling me not to agree to any fixed prices with them until they’ve checked the market.

British Gas are world leaders in being useless **** words removed. I **** despise them. Good luck with them. words removed. 

[Genie]

25 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

British Gas are world leaders in being useless **** words removed. I **** despise them. Good luck with them. words removed. 

Unless they are cheapest then I’ll be moving as soon as I can. 
It’s difficult to know where to go as another cheap supplier might go bump in a few weeks leaving me back at square 1.

[Davkaus]

1 hour ago, Genie said:

It’s difficult to know where to go as another cheap supplier might go bump in a few weeks leaving me back at square 1.

Godspeed.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Davkaus

[Genie]

I might just buy some thick jumpers and tell the family to stop moaning.

[Ingram85]

I hope OVO isn’t on the list. They’ve been pretty good for me the last few years. 

[chrisp65]

There was an industry expert on the radio earlier explaining that the problem with all green renewables was that you can’t rely on them.

Yet I’ve lived on the coast for half a century and I can report that its quite rare the tide doesn’t come in.

Let this be the spur to stop relying on fossil fuel. Let’s treat it as being the start of ‘defence’.

 

[blandy]

9 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

explaining that the problem with all green renewables was that you can’t rely on them.

Yet I’ve lived on the coast for half a century and I can report that its quite rare the tide doesn’t come in.

The tide is the very definition of unreliable. It’s just like a cat. It wants to come in, then soon as it’s in, it wants to go out again. Lunatic, it is.

Anyway this week is the one where tories have to pretend to be green because of the COP26 summit, or summat.

[Genie]

14 minutes ago, blandy said:

The tide is the very definition of unreliable. It’s just like a cat. It wants to come in, then soon as it’s in, it wants to go out again. Lunatic, it is.

Anyway this week is the one where tories have to pretend to be green because of the COP26 summit, or summat.

Whilst quietly asking how to fire up some dirty, old coal power stations.

[Genie]

Quote

Boris Johnson has admitted for the first time that he has six children, claiming in an interview on US television that he “changes a lot of nappies”.

The prime minister has previously tended to avoid questions about his notoriously complex family life. He has been divorced twice, and conceived a daughter during an extramarital relationship.

But when an NBC interviewer put to him that he has six children, he replied: “Yes.”

Johnson has a one-year-old child, Wilfred, with his wife, Carrie Johnson. He said it was “fantastic,” to have children in Number 10, claiming: “I change a lot of nappies.” The couple are now expecting another baby.

Johnson also has four adult children with his second wife, Marina Wheeler, and his daughter from his extramarital relationship. 

 

Link

6 children, number 7 on the way.