Do you want to discuss boring politics? (24 Viewers)

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Deleted member 9744

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Brighton Sky Blue said:
BBC defending her against a Lib Dem's criticism by saying 'come on, you're not being fair'. 12 years in charge and always being let off the hook while anyone else has to observe far higher standards.
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And whatever you do don't mention the impact of Brexit. Blame it all on Covid and Ukraine.
 
C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
duffer said:
I'm pretty sure there are better options. I'd start with ones that don't involve loaning private companies public money so that they can continue to make huge profits in a crisis.
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If you cap prices though you either loan the companies who provide energy to customers public money or they’ll go bust as many need to buy gas on the wholesale market.

If the proposal is done in conjunction with further direct assistance for the poorest it’s probably the best out of a bad bunch of options for reasons mentioned previously. You then look separately at some sort of further windfall tax on excess profits of energy generators/oil companies which can help fund direct assistance - not sure Truss will do this but we’ll see
 
C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
skybluetony176 said:
France is buying the remaining shares in EDF for €9.7B. On that Basis the French government could have brought EDF twice if they didn’t have any shares in it in the first place for that £100B. To say we’re being taken for mugs is an understatement.
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I don’t think it’s as simple as that. EDF are 40bn in debt and need to spend something like 100bn on repairs and replacement of existing plants as half aren’t working properly. I’d imagine France will also be buying gas on the wholesale market this winter. Sensible move for future energy security though

I do think the government should be investing and keeping ownership of a lot of the new renewables energy generators though, off shore wind etc. I’m also not sure why they don’t pay for and own any new nuclear plants themselves as well. Im not sure you’d be able to get any of the companies like edf to build them for us if we did that though
 
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W

wingy

Well-Known Member
CCFCSteve said:
I don’t think it’s as simple as that. EDF are 40bn in debt and need to spend something like 100bn on repairs and replacement of existing plants as half aren’t working properly. I’d imagine France will also be buying gas on the wholesale market this winter

I do think the government should be investing and keeping ownership of a lot of the new renewables energy generators though, off shore wind etc. I’m also not sure why they don’t pay for and own any new nuclear plants themselves as well. Im not sure you’d be able to get any of the companies like edf to build them for us if we did that though
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I think doing them through tarrifs once up and online you can pretend the surcharge within the bill is not a tax.
 
skybluetony176

skybluetony176

Well-Known Member
CCFCSteve said:
I don’t think it’s as simple as that. EDF are 40bn in debt and need to spend something like 100bn on repairs and replacement of existing plants as half aren’t working properly. I’d imagine France will also be buying gas on the wholesale market this winter

I do think the government should be investing and keeping ownership of a lot of the new renewables energy generators though, off shore wind etc. I’m also not sure why they don’t pay for and own any new nuclear plants themselves as well. Im not sure you’d be able to get any of the companies like edf to build them for us if we did that though
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Aren’t we footing most of the estimated £20B bill for Sizewell C? And there’s already talk that the cost is going to double. If you’re assuming that privatisation has spared us the cost of investment in new power plants and things like maintenance of the grid I think you’re going to be disappointed when you find out the truth. I think EDF are banking on us footing a large part of the bill in return for their involvement aren’t they?
 
C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
skybluetony176 said:
Aren’t we footing the estimated £20B bill for Sizewell C? And there’s already talk that the cost is going to double. If you’re assuming that privatisation has spared us the cost of investment in new power plants and things like maintenance of the grid I think you’re going to be disappointed when you find out the truth. I think EDF are banking on us footing a large part of the bill in return for their involvement aren’t they?
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My preference is to own the new stuff as much for energy security. I’m just saying that the EDF situation isn’t as clear cut as it first appears
 
stupot07

stupot07

Well-Known Member
Therese Coffey the shining example of health, is minister for health and social care.
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C

CCFCSteve

Well-Known Member
skybluetony176 said:
Could be worse. You could be one of the Tory MP’s not talented enough to get in it.
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Its what we see time and again, leader picks cabinet (or shadow, although that might be a little harsh on starmer) not on ability but perceived loyalty and likelihood to agree with theirs views. Disappointing but expected these days.
 
shmmeee

shmmeee

Well-Known Member
Is this the time where I float my idea of having the major offices of state elected, maybe with weighting for industry votes?

I can’t imagine many teachers voting in Cleverly, or lawyers voting in Braverman.
 
B

Brighton Sky Blue

Well-Known Member
shmmeee said:
Is this the time where I float my idea of having the major offices of state elected, maybe with weighting for industry votes?

I can’t imagine many teachers voting in Cleverly, or lawyers voting in Braverman.
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There hasn’t been an Education SoS like that since Estelle Morris. I wonder if that prick Gullis will ever get near the position
 
duffer

duffer

Well-Known Member
CCFCSteve said:
If you cap prices though you either loan the companies who provide energy to customers public money or they’ll go bust as many need to buy gas on the wholesale market.

If the proposal is done in conjunction with further direct assistance for the poorest it’s probably the best out of a bad bunch of options for reasons mentioned previously. You then look separately at some sort of further windfall tax on excess profits of energy generators/oil companies which can help fund direct assistance - not sure Truss will do this but we’ll see
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If companies go bust because they can't or won't cope with a lower cap, then maybe they'd be better back in public ownership.

Here's a better option: Re-nationalise the main energy retailers, at a cost of around 3bn (current share value). That's about the same as the Government has put in over the last 12 months to bail out the failed providers.

Now rather than pumping money into companies to maintain their profit margins, we're putting money in to keep prices and hence inflation and its main cause down.

Then every penny of public money that's invested in the nationalised energy company is for the benefit of the country rather than private shareholders and foreign-owned companies.

Similarly those massive dividends that these companies generate come back into the public purse or even better are used for the investment that's critically required in renewable energy and insulation.

We've seen that market forces simply don't work for energy provision (or water for that matter). Why on earth spend even more money on supporting a broken system?

It's not logical, it's ideological, and there are far, far better options for both the environment and the economy.

www.opendemocracy.net

ANDREW FISHER: How to nationalise energy (and what it costs)

UK could bring National Grid and retailers in-house and build public renewable energy, says ex-Labour policy chief
www.opendemocracy.net www.opendemocracy.net
 
fernandopartridge

fernandopartridge

Well-Known Member
shmmeee said:
Is this the time where I float my idea of having the major offices of state elected, maybe with weighting for industry votes?

I can’t imagine many teachers voting in Cleverly, or lawyers voting in Braverman.
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I think the only issue with it is that it guarantees corporate influence

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