So they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. We need a political intervention and all Labour can do is put forward their costed solution, which they have.
I'm a firm believer that in times of national emergency there should be cross party collaboration where the parties work together to find the best outcomes rather than sticking to tribal politics
I drove through France a couple of times recently and one thing that struck me was the number of wind farms. They are all over the place.
As at May 2021 France were actually behind us in this respect. We have a lot over here (turbines) nearly 9,000 onshore wind turbines and over 2,300 offshore. If you drive through places like Norfolk you'll also see fields of solar panels.
We are actually sixth in the world in creating GW by wind (behind China, US, Germany, India and Spain) France are 7th, around 40% behind us.
We actually have 6 out of 10 of the largest offshore wind farms in the world. The one in Cumbria (Walney) is actually the largest in the world.
We are behind a lot of Europe and the world on Solar though, but not helped by our weather!
Didn’t Both Truss and Sunak say they wanted to restrict the growth of solar farms recently ?
This is what happens when you have a party in power that is in bed with oil & gas companies, fed its policies by the Tufton St mob (funded by oil & gas companies and/or their founders) and has MP's who are also, literally, on the payroll of oil & gas companies.
The Tories have been in power for 12 years. All of it is on them, not Caroline Lucas, not Ed Miliband, not Layla Moran except her support for the previous coalition from the sidelines, but them and them alone. When people vote there is always a choice. Those who voted Tory have made a conscious choice to do so, in my view the chaotic and broken country we now inhabit is on them. The amazing thing is that Tory voters and those of a Tory mindset would blame Diane Abbott before blaming themselves.
A few weeks ago some people were saying Starmer needs to come up with policies which at this point in the parliament to me is political idiocy. In the case of the energy crisis which is now moving on from crisis to fiasco I think it’s incumbent for him to say something meaningful. Now that he has stated what a Labour government would do he’s still getting flack.
Trouble is I dont think there are any solutions at the moment. In times of real crisis things get nasty. Our Grandparents or Parents lived through terrible hardship during the 2nd world war. This current situation is caused by the Ukrainian situation and the effects on the Global economy. You could argue that although on this occasion we dont have military involvement in terms of personal we are at war in any other word with Russia. Unfortunately there isnt a quick solution and I think there will be alot of hardship ahead. I guess the question is do we crack on or give in to Putin ? That's a genuine question not meant in an inflammatory way. If a nut case has the tap on a big percentage of the worlds fuel supplies he can seriously test peoples resolve
Trouble is I dont think there are any solutions at the moment. In times of real crisis things get nasty. Our Grandparents or Parents lived through terrible hardship during the 2nd world war. This current situation is caused by the Ukrainian situation and the effects on the Global economy. You could argue that although on this occasion we dont have military involvement in terms of personal we are at war in any other word with Russia. Unfortunately there isnt a quick solution and I think there will be alot of hardship ahead. I guess the question is do we crack on or give in to Putin ? That's a genuine question not meant in an inflammatory way. If a nut case has the tap on a big percentage of the worlds fuel supplies he can seriously test peoples resolve
We are not at war with anyone. Full stop.
This is of course the Tory's narrative in development. As we saw with both Johnson and Zahawi in recent days. It ends with the view that any critism of the way our market works or the government's (botched) approach and the awful impacts, on the poorer in particular, is in some way unpatriotic. Or if we won't quietly suck it up, we're ungrateful and insensitive because of what's happening to others elsewhere.
If the Tories are good at one thing in particular, it's getting their supporters to apportion blame for everything they turn to ash on everyone and anyone but them.
Changing to sustainable green energy NOW is imperative, so that we don't have to rely on fossil fuels.
It's so obvious.
This is an opportunity for massive investment in renewable energy to move the UK near to self sustainability for energy needs as well as net zero carbon emissions targets
I mean... it seems REALLY obvious to me
Sadly, the oil and gas industries have key politicians/political parties in their pockets and the two candidates for PM seem to not be anywhere near doing that
Hasn’t taken long for the narrative to change. It won’t be long until it’s ‘you’re lucky to have the energy you have, and, energy is for lefties’
Problem is, so many half-wits will fall for this utter nonsense.
Completely agree. Given McKenzie’s wealth I imagine he won’t even notice a £500 bill for Jan. I fully expect the stance taken by Tory MPs in the coming months to go from ‘you (the public) need to do more to cut down, to, we were lucky to have central heating when I was growing up, to our homes were bombed by the Germans in the war and central heating was the last thing on our minds, now show some Chuchillian spirit, keep calm and carry on’
Hasn’t taken long for the narrative to change. It won’t be long until it’s ‘you’re lucky to have the energy you have, and, energy is for lefties’
Problem is, so many half-wits will fall for this utter nonsense.
Completely agree. Given McKenzie’s wealth I imagine he won’t even notice a £500 bill for Jan. I fully expect the stance taken by Tory MPs in the coming months to go from ‘you (the public) need to do more to cut down, to, we were lucky to have central heating when I was growing up, to our homes were bombed by the Germans in the war and central heating was the last thing on our minds, now show some Chuchillian spirit, keep calm and carry on’
They are already doing that, I'm seeing many posts on Twitter where people are saying 'when I was young we had ice on the inside of windows'.
I had hoped that we've moved on from those days when many died in freezing cold homes, but if this Government fails to act now, this is going to happen.
Going to order in loads of logs and get the log burners on earlier than we used to so we can cut our oil consumption as much as possible. House is pretty much all LED but will be switching as many off as possible. Trouble is you try to use as little as possible BUT still get hit by the huge increase to the standing charges !!!!
Hasn’t taken long for the narrative to change. It won’t be long until it’s ‘you’re lucky to have the energy you have, and, energy is for lefties’
Problem is, so many half-wits will fall for this utter nonsense.
Completely agree. Given McKenzie’s wealth I imagine he won’t even notice a £500 bill for Jan. I fully expect the stance taken by Tory MPs in the coming months to go from ‘you (the public) need to do more to cut down, to, we were lucky to have central heating when I was growing up, to our homes were bombed by the Germans in the war and central heating was the last thing on our minds, now show some Chuchillian spirit, keep calm and carry on’
They are already doing that, I'm seeing many posts on Twitter where people are saying 'when I was young we had ice on the inside of windows'.
I had hoped that we've moved on from those days when many died in freezing cold homes, but if this Government fails to act now, this is going to happen.
That was my house! Until we moved when I was 5 we didn't have central heating, we did have an electric fire in the living room and a paraffin heater in the bathroom.
Not sure how we heated the water mind you (no mains gas)
Hasn’t taken long for the narrative to change. It won’t be long until it’s ‘you’re lucky to have the energy you have, and, energy is for lefties’
Problem is, so many half-wits will fall for this utter nonsense.
Completely agree. Given McKenzie’s wealth I imagine he won’t even notice a £500 bill for Jan. I fully expect the stance taken by Tory MPs in the coming months to go from ‘you (the public) need to do more to cut down, to, we were lucky to have central heating when I was growing up, to our homes were bombed by the Germans in the war and central heating was the last thing on our minds, now show some Chuchillian spirit, keep calm and carry on’
They are already doing that, I'm seeing many posts on Twitter where people are saying 'when I was young we had ice on the inside of windows'.
I had hoped that we've moved on from those days when many died in freezing cold homes, but if this Government fails to act now, this is going to happen.
That was my house! Until we moved when I was 5 we didn't have central heating, we did have an electric fire in the living room and a paraffin heater in the bathroom.
Same for me, council flat in Lewisham, coal fire swapped out for gas at some point, no heating anywhere else. So my parents ended up getting a calor gas burner for the hall. Fecking grim.
Trouble is I dont think there are any solutions at the moment. In times of real crisis things get nasty. Our Grandparents or Parents lived through terrible hardship during the 2nd world war. This current situation is caused by the Ukrainian situation and the effects on the Global economy. You could argue that although on this occasion we dont have military involvement in terms of personal we are at war in any other word with Russia. Unfortunately there isnt a quick solution and I think there will be alot of hardship ahead. I guess the question is do we crack on or give in to Putin ? That's a genuine question not meant in an inflammatory way. If a nut case has the tap on a big percentage of the worlds fuel supplies he can seriously test peoples resolve
We are not at war with anyone. Full stop.
This is of course the Tory's narrative in development. As we saw with both Johnson and Zahawi in recent days. It ends with the view that any critism of the way our market works or the government's (botched) approach and the awful impacts, on the poorer in particular, is in some way unpatriotic. Or if we won't quietly suck it up, we're ungrateful and insensitive because of what's happening to others elsewhere.
If the Tories are good at one thing in particular, it's getting their supporters to apportion blame for everything they turn to ash on everyone and anyone but them.
You dont think we are involved in an economic war ?
Are we not sending arms ?
Are we not hosting Ukrainian troops for training ?
Is there not a media war being waged ?
I would say that the fact that we are not involved in terms of boots on the ground does not mean that we are not at war
As I said this crisis is being treated really badly in terms of a fitting response being delayed for political purposes but blaming energy company fat cats, politicians with their snouts in the trough etc is a very simplistic blame game when there are so many factors influencing things most of which are global issues
Hasn’t taken long for the narrative to change. It won’t be long until it’s ‘you’re lucky to have the energy you have, and, energy is for lefties’
Problem is, so many half-wits will fall for this utter nonsense.
Completely agree. Given McKenzie’s wealth I imagine he won’t even notice a £500 bill for Jan. I fully expect the stance taken by Tory MPs in the coming months to go from ‘you (the public) need to do more to cut down, to, we were lucky to have central heating when I was growing up, to our homes were bombed by the Germans in the war and central heating was the last thing on our minds, now show some Chuchillian spirit, keep calm and carry on’
They are already doing that, I'm seeing many posts on Twitter where people are saying 'when I was young we had ice on the inside of windows'.
I had hoped that we've moved on from those days when many died in freezing cold homes, but if this Government fails to act now, this is going to happen.
That was my house! Until we moved when I was 5 we didn't have central heating, we did have an electric fire in the living room and a paraffin heater in the bathroom.
Not sure how we heated the water mind you (no mains gas)
I lived in a 1930s style house in Bexleyheath until I was 8 and it had no central heating, just a coal fire in the lounge and electric heaters in other rooms. I can remember ice on the inside of the windows in winter and an electric 3 bar heater in the bathroom doorway. When we moved to a brand new centrally heated bungalow it was marvellous. Not sure why anyone would think it okay to go back to living in houses with no proper heating.
Trouble is I dont think there are any solutions at the moment. In times of real crisis things get nasty. Our Grandparents or Parents lived through terrible hardship during the 2nd world war. This current situation is caused by the Ukrainian situation and the effects on the Global economy. You could argue that although on this occasion we dont have military involvement in terms of personal we are at war in any other word with Russia. Unfortunately there isnt a quick solution and I think there will be alot of hardship ahead. I guess the question is do we crack on or give in to Putin ? That's a genuine question not meant in an inflammatory way. If a nut case has the tap on a big percentage of the worlds fuel supplies he can seriously test peoples resolve
We are not at war with anyone. Full stop.
This is of course the Tory's narrative in development. As we saw with both Johnson and Zahawi in recent days. It ends with the view that any critism of the way our market works or the government's (botched) approach and the awful impacts, on the poorer in particular, is in some way unpatriotic. Or if we won't quietly suck it up, we're ungrateful and insensitive because of what's happening to others elsewhere.
If the Tories are good at one thing in particular, it's getting their supporters to apportion blame for everything they turn to ash on everyone and anyone but them.
You dont think we are involved in an economic war ?
Are we not sending arms ?
Are we not hosting Ukrainian troops for training ?
Is there not a media war being waged ?
I would say that the fact that we are not involved in terms of boots on the ground does not mean that we are not at war
As I said this crisis is being treated really badly in terms of a fitting response being delayed for political purposes but blaming energy company fat cats, politicians with theirsnouts in the trough etc is a very simplistic blame game when there are so many factors influencing things most of which are global issues
They are doing very nicely on the backs of the rest of us who are/will be struggling to make ends meet. Those with the broadest shoulders, the highest rate tax payers and big corporations making huge profits should be taxed more.
Liz Truss talks about growth, but if people don't have the money to spend on luxuries like holidays, eating out, visiting tourist attractions, and shopping for anything other than essentials, there will be no growth, businesses will close down and there will be mass unemployment.
Not being funny this is the 2022 in a country which is supposed to be at the top table. We shouldn’t have people having to choose between eating and heating.
What went on 50+ years ago with how people coped with their then lives is completely irrelevant. Since then we’ve had a couple of generations grow up and they won’t give any more thought to those previous hardships than I do about no clean drinking water and having to drink beer instead. It’s consigned to history for a very good reason. It was awful. We’re constantly being told by the government that our economy is strong because of their actions and we are as previously posted a country lucky to be at the top table. People won’t go back to freezing their nuts off just because their grandparents did. Nor should they. If it takes £100 billion of OUR money to sort this out then so be it. I am in at this point a very privileged position of still having a year to run on my fixed tariff contract and even I am getting twitchy about what’s to come. I just can’t see people seeing the energy companies making billions in profits and shrugging their shoulders while they freeze. I don’t think they should either.
You say if it costs 100Bn then so be it and I agree with you but I think there are better ways to do it than give a blanket payment to everyone. I'm lucky in that fortunately I have solar, batteries that charge overnight at 8p kw which pretty much run my house so tbh I dont need the payment. Other people are very fortunate and although painful can afford the increase. Giving blanket payments mean the people that need it get less
You say if it costs 100Bn then so be it and I agree with you but I think there are better ways to do it than give a blanket payment to everyone. I'm lucky in that fortunately I have solar, batteries that charge overnight at 8p kw which pretty much run my house so tbh I dont need the payment. Other people are very fortunate and although painful can afford the increase. Giving blanket payments mean the people that need it get less
100% agree.
It is all relative. Am I worse off than I was? - yes. Will the increases cause me any hardship? Thankfully and luckily - No.
We need to find a way to mitigate this for those who cannot afford the increases without it causing real hardship - not across the board payments.
Comments
Sunak's no better though:
This is what happens when you have a party in power that is in bed with oil & gas companies, fed its policies by the Tufton St mob (funded by oil & gas companies and/or their founders) and has MP's who are also, literally, on the payroll of oil & gas companies.
All of it is on them, not Caroline Lucas, not Ed Miliband, not Layla Moran except her support for the previous coalition from the sidelines, but them and them alone.
When people vote there is always a choice. Those who voted Tory have made a conscious choice to do so, in my view the chaotic and broken country we now inhabit is on them.
The amazing thing is that Tory voters and those of a Tory mindset would blame Diane Abbott before blaming themselves.
Coming together In times of crisis, isn't the same as abandoning your morals to gain some.kind of power.
That's a genuine question not meant in an inflammatory way.
If a nut case has the tap on a big percentage of the worlds fuel supplies he can seriously test peoples resolve
This is of course the Tory's narrative in development. As we saw with both Johnson and Zahawi in recent days. It ends with the view that any critism of the way our market works or the government's (botched) approach and the awful impacts, on the poorer in particular, is in some way unpatriotic. Or if we won't quietly suck it up, we're ungrateful and insensitive because of what's happening to others elsewhere.
If the Tories are good at one thing in particular, it's getting their supporters to apportion blame for everything they turn to ash on everyone and anyone but them.
This is an opportunity for massive investment in renewable energy to move the UK near to self sustainability for energy needs as well as net zero carbon emissions targets
I mean... it seems REALLY obvious to me
Sadly, the oil and gas industries have key politicians/political parties in their pockets and the two candidates for PM seem to not be anywhere near doing that
Am interested to see what happens next
I had hoped that we've moved on from those days when many died in freezing cold homes, but if this Government fails to act now, this is going to happen.
Not sure how we heated the water mind you (no mains gas)
Same for me, council flat in Lewisham, coal fire swapped out for gas at some point, no heating anywhere else. So my parents ended up getting a calor gas burner for the hall. Fecking grim.
Are we not sending arms ?
Are we not hosting Ukrainian troops for training ?
Is there not a media war being waged ?
I would say that the fact that we are not involved in terms of boots on the ground does not mean that we are not at war
As I said this crisis is being treated really badly in terms of a fitting response being delayed for political purposes but blaming energy company fat cats, politicians with their snouts in the trough etc is a very simplistic blame game when there are so many factors influencing things most of which are global issues
Liz Truss talks about growth, but if people don't have the money to spend on luxuries like holidays, eating out, visiting tourist attractions, and shopping for anything other than essentials, there will be no growth, businesses will close down and there will be mass unemployment.
We need to start to take it seriously now - but switching completely to renewables will take decades.