The now-enacted will of (some of) the people

[sidcow]

6 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

 

 

4 hours ago, Davkaus said:

She was right when she sarcastically said it's nothing to do with Brexit, unless the suggestion is that Brexit is such a disaster that it's raised shipping costs globally.

I'm sure there's a bit of added cost from increased paperwork and checks due to Brexit, but the prices have risen astronomically for shipping to any country in the world, I was reading about the containers costing 5 times as much from China to the US as well.

Just because someone works in an industry and sees an effect doesn't mean they have any idea what the cause is, even if they're willing to make an arse of themselves on national TV.

I saw the whole report which is not covered in that tweet.  She talked about import and export taxes which didn't apply before.  Not sure why the tweet missed that bit off, I guess they just wanted to post up  the sarcasm. 

[bickster]

3 hours ago, stuart_75 said:

Wholesale power prices have go crazy these last 8 months, not sure if really brexit related, but the energy companies will be passing on those increases soon enough. Deffo hard times ahoy.

There was just a story on Radio 4 News about this. Its the same across Europe and the reason is.... it's been a very low wind year which has pushed gas prices higher and higher as the wind turbines haven't produced as much electricity as normal

[foreveryoung]

4 hours ago, stuart_75 said:

Wholesale power prices have go crazy these last 8 months, not sure if really brexit related, but the energy companies will be passing on those increases soon enough. Deffo hard times ahoy.

EDF want a third more a year for our dual fuel. They can f*** right off with that, I'll be switching.

Just looked, British Gas want a extra £80 a year, that'll do. I guess it has to go up, but a chance for the energy companies to take advantage I'd say.

[sidcow]

1 minute ago, foreveryoung said:

EDF want a third more a year for our dual fuel. They can f*** right off with that, I'll be switching.

Just looked, British Gas want a extra £80 a year, that'll do. I guess it has to go up, but a chance for the energy companies to take advantage I'd say.

They're doomed.  Solar panels are getting more and more efficient and cheaper and cheaper all the time. 

Gas going through the roof will just make it easier for people to swap to solar and things like ground source heat pumps will get more affordable. 

Which is all a good thing as gas is killing the planet anyway. 

Every home should have a battery to soak up power when the wind and solar are not producing enough. Those are also getting cheaper and bigger capacity. 

It's hard to see where a large number of corporations competing for the fraction of power we need to buy through the grid fit in. Once Perovskite tandem panels get cheap enough and efficient enough we will see a big shift to solar, they'll chuck out masses of power, you won't see roofs covered in panels like now. 

[stuart_75]

13 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

EDF want a third more a year for our dual fuel. They can f*** right off with that, I'll be switching.

Just looked, British Gas want a extra £80 a year, that'll do. I guess it has to go up, but a chance for the energy companies to take advantage I'd say.

Have a look at Octopus. You can get a referral code off an existing customer for a 50 quid credit to your account. DM me if you need one.

[Seat68]

If we are going down that route, if anyone fancies joining ovo, I have a referral code that will see us both get £50 gift card. 

[Genie]

My supplier (The People’s Energy) has gone bust, I have to wait for ofgem to assign my account to a new supplier now before i can move to something competitive. Fun times.

 

[Genie]

Daily Mail in “maybe we **** up” shock

Quote

Soaring bills, empty shelves, used cars that cost MORE than new ones and NO toys for Christmas - how UK faces being crippled by 'perfect storm' of Covid, Brexit and soaring gas prices that will leave families thousands of pounds poorer

Brexit, increased gas prices and the Covid pandemic have all contributed to the crisis, which will leave families substantially out of pocket over the coming months.  

Wasn’t Brexit predicted by them many times to be all good? 

[Davkaus]

Brexit really has very little to do with problems in the energy sector. Energy prices are up globally, and in the UK we're seeing a shortfall due to our nuclear stations coming to the end of their life and needing significant periods of maintenance. Governments have kicked this can down the road for decades. There aren't affordable gas supplies from overseas to fill in the gap, and renewables aren't doing it. Our failure to invest in nuclear while many of our stations will reach their EOL over the coming decade will see record highs for consumer spending on energy. 

Two energy firms went bust this week, expect many more to fail over winter. We're seeing huge spikes in prices, especially day to day, and the smaller companies that were "competing" on prices  compared to the big 6 did so by failing to hedge sensibly, most of them them will be going to  the wall in the next 6 months.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Davkaus

[bickster]

3 hours ago, Davkaus said:

Two energy firms went bust this week,

4 more predicted next week I believe

[bickster]

For those saying the energy price rises have nothing to do with Brexit, this may be an interesting read. Yes its a blog but also one that appears to know a bit about the subject

Quote

Energy Prices rise after UK leaves EU Internal Energy Market

[...]

What went wrong?

When the UK exited the EU, it did not address the many issues identified in its own plans, where plans existed. The government ignored the EU Commission papers on the topic which identified in detail what risks existed to energy supply and balancing. It is almost as if the Government thought they could just fix issues as they ‘cropped up’ after the amateurish leaving agreement. However they did not actually have the agility or energy to do the necessary grunt work. We elected to be outside the EU Internal Energy Market, even though we rely on key aspects of it. So now we have lost significant control over prices, which is being used as an excuse to use coal fired power stations to balance the grid. And yes, that has just happened in the very year of the COP26 summit.

[...]

West England Bylines

TL:DR Whilst yes there is a wider European problem this year, it's not as acute as it is in the UK and thats because... Brexit Deal / Incompetent Government

[Davkaus]

That article certainly seems like a balanced peice written with a fair and open mind It highlights how out of control UK prices are but doesn't compare to rises in the EU (which are very much in line). It highlights we choose to leave the EU Internal Energy Market, and I'd agree that was a strategic mistake in the longterm, but has little to no effect on prices hikes when we're seeing the average wholesale price of gas triple in the last year throughout europe.  It will have some effect (note I said "very little" rather than "nothing"), but IMO the author of that article goes into it with the intention of showing brexit is the root of the problem and does little to actually demonstrate that's the case.

We should absolutely be doing what we can to give us as many options as we can to ensure a robust supply network, and freely choosing to hamper our use of interconnectors is as a bone-headed move as the rest of our negotiations. Over the coming years we could be in very real danger of being unable to meet our own spikes in demand, and while that's down to poor infrastructure planning for decades rather than Brexit, keeping us in the EIEM could have protected supply in those circumstances. Is us leaving that playing a significant part in price hikes and suppliers going bust though? I don't see any facts supporting that.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Davkaus

[chrisp65]

As long as we can buy tanks and drones we don’t need to worry about fuel and food as part of our defence strategy.

The aircraft carrier will keep us warm and fed.

[Genie]

The s*n

Quote

BORIS Johnson and Michael Gove today promise to scrap VAT on household energy bills if Britain backs a Brexit.

In the first cash sweetener of the EU Referendum campaign, they argue that leaving the EU will allow ministers to bin the "unfair and damaging" £2 billion a year tax on gas and electricity prices.

The scrapping on VAT on energy bills will go some way to help offset the massive increases on their way. 
When is that due to come in?

[AXD]

22 minutes ago, Genie said:

The s*n

The scrapping on VAT on energy bills will go some way to help offset the massive increases on their way. 
When is that due to come in?

Around the time the £350m per week for the NHS comes in. Good times ahead!

Edited September 20, 2021 by AXD

[bickster]

Just remember it was the Tories that introduced VAT on Gas and Electricity in 1994 (8%), it was previously zero rated.

It was also the Tories that tried to raise VAT on domestic Gas and Electricity to the Standard Rate (was due to happen in 1995) but a revolt happened in the December 1994 budget bill and kept it at 8%

Labour reduced it to 5% as a manifesto pledge, that was the lowest they were allowed to charge under EU rules. It could have remained as zero rated had the Tories not introduced the charge as the EU would have allowed this as it was already in place but once the Tories started the charge it could never return to 0%

Now we're out of the EU it can return to 0% but....

The party of low taxation my arse

[Wainy316]

We must have the worst taxation to public spending ratio in the developed world.

[Genie]

I think leading us into a war is the next logical step for the Tories.

 

[Mozzavfc]

9 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

We must have the worst taxation to public spending ratio in the developed world.

Our Government expenditure as a share of gross domestic product in the United Kingdom was 41.3 percent in 2020/21. That puts us above Bulgaria, Romania, and Ireland!

Source https://www.statista.com/statistics/263220/public-spending-ratio-in-eu-countries/

[sidcow]

So it seems Boris can't get a Trade Deal out of the USA.  I thought this kind of thing was going to be easy? 

Sounds like instead we might have to join the North America trading block.  So. Without the power of Europe we now have the negotiating power of Canada and Mexico. That sounds decidedly league 2 to me.