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Why not relax, and converse into the night on the day’s events in PB NightHawks.
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Forgive me if my heart doesn't bleed.
http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/09/energy-company-profits-rise-74-per-cent-in-48-months-3917579/
But I simply cannot believe energy companies do not overcharge us, the continual rises take the piss far too much for that. Bobajob's link is what most people think of about them, that even for big companies they egregiously gouge us, for no noticable gain in service, or even maintenance of service, but just a change of name at the top of the bill.
Regardless of whether little Ed's pledge stays firm or turns into an aspiration there's going to be an intense spotlight on their pricing now, and not before time.
I also strongly doubt there will be too many politicians 'brave' or foolhardy enough to unquestioningly stick up for those energy companies and their prices.
Cammie also promised to force energy companies into lower prices remember.
Bit hard to then posture on their behalf after that.
Limit H2B to new builds & policies to disincentivise land-banking. That I like.
That's not a bad place for an opposition.
Nice try though. If only.
The main thing he and Labour need to prepared for is the assault that is coming his way, from the Govt (both the Tories and Lib Dems) over his proposals, do they add up/are they feasible/legal etc.
Ed's biggest mistake today was to make things personal, (his reference to not taking his shirt off like Dave).
That's given the green light to the Tories to make their attacks on Ed even more personal.
Even his warmest admirers will admit, on the looks and personality front, Ed will struggle
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2428955/UK-requires-38-new-power-stations-government-hit-green-energy-targets.html
The figures on energy are staggering. A billion doesn't buy you much generating capacity, even when it is a gas plant. The new 2GW Pembroke plant cost a billion to construct.
Maybe the companies are making excess profit; they are certainly guilty of being secretive. But the most important factor that has to be borne in mind is energy security, and Miliband's evidently got no idea about that. He didn't when he was at DECC; he doesn't now.
So long as you could be sure the energy companies don't pinch the benefit, that would strick me as a sensible use of any extra money George can find down the back of the sofa. Direct consumer benefit (think they said £120 per consumer) - should feed through into spending - albeit expensive (£120 * 30m homes = £3.5bn). Shoots Ed's fox as well.
"Centrica, which supplies energy to 12m households, issued its stark warning in an unusually strongly-worded statement condemning Ed Miliband's proposal.
"If prices were to be controlled against a background of rising costs it would simply not be economically viable for Centrica, or indeed any other energy supplier, to continue to operate and far less to meet the sizeable investment challenge that the industry is facing," it said.
"The impact of such a policy would be damaging for the country’s long term prosperity and for our customers.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/10331960/Centrica-claims-Labours-energy-price-freeze-could-put-it-out-of-business.html
We need £120bn of new power stations like now. This is partly because of the incompetence of the last government in getting replacement capacity in place. Step forward Ed. It has not been helped by dithering and time wasting on green rubbish by the Lib Dems. Step forward another Ed (is there something in the name?)
Let's face it the power companies have us by the short and curlies in a grip which means we have to crawl to them to get what we need. Such are the glories of spending useful money on windmillsand avoiding decisions on nuclear.
This policy is bordering on reckless.
SSE is the only major power company in the FTSE, it went up after the speech, so the city does not seem worried.
If only Ed had been Energy Secretary in the last Labour government, we wouldn't have these energy problems.
Oh...
For example, many people (not the public sector) have pensions that are dependent on stock market performance. These are the real owners of Centrica, etc. Labour will be getting into a fight against them.
Do you realise just how unpopular these companies and their practices are?
"I can't wait to read Nabavi, Plato and Fitalass et al stand up for the social benefit which the energy companies bring to us !"
Let me have a go. Electricity?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/05/23/draft_energy_bill_wtf/
I honestly hadn't read that before I posted. I think I am turning into a Telegraph reader. Help!
There are a huge number of pitfalls that the practical application would have to navigate: is the entire market to be frozen (tariffs, providers, prices and so on)? If not, how does that square with freezing prices? If so, will people be able to switch? If they can, will this not lead to people being on what could rapidly become a hugely unprofitable rate for the company/ies, especially if input prices rise. If they can't, some will be locked in to high rates (usually poorer people at that). What happens if a provider wants to withdraw? Will the government underwrite any losses incurred (in whole or in part)? There are endless questions which could cause the whole thing to fall apart.
Likewise the legality question. The EU Commission might have given it an amber light but they're not the final arbiter and the ECJ could well come up with a different finding. Indeed, until the details are published, it'd be impossible for anyone to give a definitive answer. I don't really see how it's any different in principle from the minimum pricing policy for alcohol which was ruled out of bounds. If someone wants to pay more than the maximum (to secure supply for example), why shouldn't they be able to do so?
It's entirely possible that Miliband or whoever's the Shadow Energy minister could end up in a car-crash of an interview trying to explain the policy.
That said, it'll no doubt be popular in principle and that's presumably the intention.
Thankfully we have an objective, intelligent and straightforward media to explain the state of play to the electorate. Ahem.
Plus VIlla lost to Newcastle earlier on this season..
'Labour is saying that it will confiscate private property if it does not like what people are doing with it.'
Fire up the Cortina, we're back to Roy Hattersley price controls and Zimbabwe style land grabs.
Van Wolfswinkel needs to step up.
The ball is in Cameron's court soon enough at conference if he wants to do anything about it or prefer to stick up for the energy companies and do nothing.
The thing is, Cammie doesn't seem quite so keen to posture on his green credentials anymore for some strange reason. So I'm going to hazzard a guess that he won't be doing that much grandstanding on bringing in new green taxes at conference lest his base come over all kipperish again.
I hope if and when I'm guest editor in the future, and he gets into trouble, I have the perfect headline for a thread
"Balls deep in trouble"
If you make any form of economic activity too risky or onerous by over taxing or regulating, people will do less of it or stop totally. Simples.
This is a receipe for shortages of power long term as companies invest elsewhere where the regulatory and tax risks are less. As for confiscating private property because " you're not doing anything with it" I - I paraphrase - I'm speechless. Utterly speechless.
I will seriously look at putting more of my cash abroad in case I have to follow it frankly.
It will have voters thinking: Labour, Tory, or Lib Dem - Where Is My Mind?
Grant Shapps was due on Newsnight, but he has been detained at CCHQ accepting donations to party funds from energy companies.
@ITVLauraK: Consumers who use heating oil or LPG, not gas or electricity wouldn't have their prices frozen under today's Labour plans
http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/the-five-myths-about-fracking-(1).aspx
Government price controls, Unions having beer and sandwiches at number 10, power shortages, inflation and currency depreciation. Cap in hand to the IMF.
Now where did we have all these things before? It does seem familiar...
Well, perhaps we will at least get some good music out of it!
Seriously though it's barking what he's announced today. Ripe for the law of unintended consequences.
As for the cash I'm deadly serious . I might have some to invest soon and I will absolutely balance it away from the UK now I've seen a glimpse of Ed's soul. No way will I risk it being randomly confiscated for policies superficially designed to convince people there's a free lunch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohRbJJohv6Y
Scott they left you. Just move on and try to rebuild with positivity. Don't let the past dictate your actions. Build a new life for yourself.
Thing is, I'm not all that certain Britain won't try a very left-wing government... How many people are alive who remember the 1970's clearly? And for those that do surely 40-35 years is enough to allow the memory to fade.
Everything in life is cyclical and fashions come and go. I could well imagine that Britain might elect an extreme socialist government in 2015...
For that reason, I'm going to start stocking up on candle's now.
And and the Tories had better start thinking about who will be the "New Thatcher" to rescue us from the socialist nightmare when the sh*t hit's the fan.
You need to consider this background statement to the referral of Poland by the EU Commission to the ECJ:
Internal energy market legislation (Directive 2009/73/EC) offers consumers the freedom to choose their supplier. The European objective, as confirmed by the Heads of State and Governments at the European Council in May 2013, is to establish a genuine European internal energy market by 2014. This will enhance security of supply and guarantee consumers more choice and the best possible service. The existence of a competitive EU internal energy market is the best way of ensuring security of supply and competitive energy prices. Regulated prices distort the markets as they do not reflect actual demand and limit effective competition. Furthermore, they can prevent new arrivals from entering the market. Therefore, and as confirmed by the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice, regulated prices may be adopted only when they serve the general economic interest and are proportionate, clearly defined, transparent, non-discriminatory and verifiable. The Court of Justice has confirmed this principle in its Federutility and ENEL judgments of 2010 and 2011. [My bolding]
Further details on http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-580_en.htm
I am not claiming that Labour's proposals are in conflict with EU legislation but it is clear from the above there will be plenty of scope for legal argument.
You can get some decent hotels on deals for less than £100, some prepay, some not
1) The strategy is correct. Labour have lost the argument on the economy, on the cuts, and on growth. Whatever the rights and wrongs, the Osborne narrative has prevailed (many left-leaning journalists have been ruefully making this point in recent weeks).
2) Therefore, in contrast to their approach up till now, Labour are no longer trying to make an argument they can't win, which just ties them up in knots. Instead, they're trying to shift the battle away from the Tories' favoured battleground - the deficit - onto different ground where they think they at least have some credibility, and might have a distinct advantage. The cost of living is the main ground they've chosen, which helpfully ties into what the focus groups tell them about Cameron and Osborne being 'out of touch' (let's not enquire too closely into quite how the Labour front-bench is more in touch - perception is all).
3) Will it work? For a day or two, yes. Even if the specific proposals get shot down (which they will), Labour would far rather be arguing about energy costs than the deficit.
4) As to whether it will work longer term, that depends on the response from the Tories, and to an extent the LibDems (who are at grave risk here of being squeezed out as irrelevant). The new approach leaves Labour dangerously exposed on the deficit flank; I won't be the only one to have noticed this.
5) Ed Miliband has a new and much better speech writer. I don't know who he or she is, but this text had real verbs and a welcome absence of abstract wonk-speak. Compared with, say, last year's speech, it was much, much better - it cannot have been written by the same person or team. What this probably means is that it's much less Ed's own work, but that's a guess. (We'll gloss over and forgive over the cheesy bits - this was a conference speech after all).
PS This "artful" shit is getting old.
Generally other parties don't intervene when another party is holding their conference - The exception being El Gord who flew to Iraq during the 2007 Conservative conference - But that was the beginning of the end for him and the "bottled" election happened just a few days later - And Gord was completely and totally bonkers.
They send you a bill, and you can go to court for not paying it.
The government says the bill exceeds their cap. Energy company says the cap is not legal. Pay the bills, or go to court, or we turn the lights out...
Red should be completely unelectable now
http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/85396/the_daily_mail_wednesday_25th_september_2013.html
One of the victims of the Nairobi massacre was Ghanas national poet:
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2013/09/ghanaian-poet-and-professor-kofi-awoonor-killed-in-nairobi-shopping-mall-attack/
An example of his work:
http://www.poetryfoundationghana.org/index.php/occational-poems/funeral/item/816-songs-of-sorrow