energy prices- are we being taken for a ride?

[Mobeytrova]

So this article says "Only 36% of “a typical bill” comprises the actual cost of energy, the rest being tax, delivery, billing, customer services, environmental schemes and profit. So even if the price of gas doubles, triples, goes wild, only just over a third of your bill should double, triple or go wild, the other costs being static, give or take inflation" This calculation doesn't seem to justify the threefold or so increase...

AIBU, is the war being used as an excuse to make yet more profit from the already struggling people of this country?

Link to article: www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/15/britains-consumer-champions-fiery-martin-lewis-richard-murphy-cost-of-living-crisis

It depends. This is the logical conclusion of the rampant market capitalism that Johnson and co worship so. It's how Sunak made his millions. It's how Rees-Mogg's company makes its millions. Speculation, profiteering, tax avoidance. A chancellor with a career background in making money for individuals (and himself) rather than anything whatsoever to do with the prudent use and redistribution of public funds.

They could impose a windfall tax. They could impose a price cap. They don't because they are ideologically tied to free-fall capitalism in which profit is all.

And - even being generous and acknowledging the impact of covid - these cost of living problems are massively exacerbated by the idiocy Brexit and anyone who pretends otherwise is lying - to themselves and to you.

The increase in energy prices predates the war. Do not allow them to tell you it's Russia's fault.

Oil fell below $90 per barrel yesterday. Watch nothing change at the pumps.
Big pharmacy had their payday during the last two years. Now it’s the turn of the energy and defence industries. Not a conspiracy theory, it’s just way it goes. These global events don’t just happen by accident.

Yes we are being taken for a ride. We are forced to rely on energy and cars, as society has developed to take away our ability to be self-reliant. We can’t afford to live in the cities we work, so we have to drive. We have to use fuel and energy to get us to work, and then we’re penalised for doing so!

IMO you shouldn’t pay tax on fuel which is used to get you to your place of work, where you earn money… to pay more tax!

It's so disgusting.

They could impose a windfall tax. They could impose a price cap. They don't because they are ideologically tied to free-fall capitalism in which profit is all.

Surely there is a limit at the end of this? Without salaries increasing and cost of essentials increasing with no end will result in poverty and the big gap between rich and poor? Is this ideology supposed to be leading to victorian times then? Is that what these people see as the ideal state a country should be in?

Would mass demonstrations change their policy - poll tax style? If places like France can impose a windfall tax why can’t the UK government do the same ?

@DogsAndGin

Yes we are being taken for a ride. We are forced to rely on energy and cars, as society has developed to take away our ability to be self-reliant. We can’t afford to live in the cities we work, so we have to drive. We have to use fuel and energy to get us to work, and then we’re penalised for doing so!

IMO you shouldn’t pay tax on fuel which is used to get you to your place of work, where you earn money… to pay more tax!

You raise another interesting point. I never understood why I pay income tax and then pay more tax on stuff I buy with the already taxed income.

@changeyourname11111

Would mass demonstrations change their policy - poll tax style? If places like France can impose a windfall tax why can’t the UK government do the same ?

The lack of protests baffles me. Maybe people have no hope they'll make any difference, maybe we're not as organised as the French, or maybe people can't even afford to go on a day of protest.

@Mobeytrova

It's so disgusting.

They could impose a windfall tax. They could impose a price cap. They don't because they are ideologically tied to free-fall capitalism in which profit is all.

Surely there is a limit at the end of this? Without salaries increasing and cost of essentials increasing with no end will result in poverty and the big gap between rich and poor? Is this ideology supposed to be leading to victorian times then? Is that what these people see as the ideal state a country should be in?

Well a return to Victorian times would certainly suit Rees-Mogg, he's been cosplaying as a Victorian gentleman for years.

I honestly think that this particular Cabinet is dross - they are the dregs left after all the decent Tories (yes, there are some) got culled over Brexit. They are there as their reward for supporting Johnson, not for any other reason - like competency or innovative policy making or a proven and successful political career.

So when faced with real problems, not invented ones like "taking back control" from the EU, they are deer caught in headlights, unable to think creatively, unwilling to listen, utterly incapable of navigating the country away from crisis.

The only good thing is that the burning rage that I feel when I think about this shower of useless chancers will keep me toasty warm even without my heating on.

Standing Charge went up... but why? I think it is because we are paying for the energy the companies that went bust sold but didn't pay for. Is it something like that which has caused the standing charge to increase?

In petrol a lot of what we pay is tax. Will that drop in the next budget, I doubt it. Will they divert that money to fix the pot holes in the roads, I doubt it.

The only good thing is that the burning rage that I feel when I think about this shower of useless chancers will keep me toasty warm even without my heating on.

🤣🤣

Yes the increase in the standing charge is partly to pay for the cost of sorting out all the small suppliers which went bust.

In petrol a lot of what we pay is tax. Will that drop in the next budget, I doubt it. Will they divert that money to fix the pot holes in the roads, I doubt it.

Exactly. It is their decision to increase prices and cost of living pushing people into poverty! And they're blaming everything and everyone else. Are people actually buying this? When are the next elections by the way?!

I don’t understand the lack of protests either. The stories I hear from friends and relatives about the price rises make me so angry, and I don’t even live in the UK currently. Maybe we need a mumusnetter to organise one/start a movement?

I think we do need big poll tax type riots. I’m beginning to think a bit of anarchy is the way forward.

@mjf981

I don’t understand the lack of protests either. The stories I hear from friends and relatives about the price rises make me so angry, and I don’t even live in the UK currently. Maybe we need a mumusnetter to organise one/start a movement?

Will never happen. We probably are being fucked over by energy companies and the government, and guess what? The current government will get voted back in again. We don't care enough to do anything about it.

www.ft.com/content/6cdc4859-db8c-4137-8436-2a10cb50f579

The European Federation of Energy Traders seem to want a bail out, interesting times.

Didn't they push through some recent law making it more difficult to protest? 🤔

@Mobeytrova

Didn't they push through some recent law making it more difficult to protest? 🤔

Yes - although some of the really dystopian bits didn't make it through e.g. giving police the right to search anyone without suspicion. Only thanks to the Lords though (no, Lebedev didn't vote). They (Patel, Raab, et al) still want to reinstate the "your protest will be deemed illegal if it's too noisy" part though.

Think about all the stuff going wrong in this country - energy bills yes but also the existing exponential rise in poverty and food bank usage, the north-south divide, stagnating wages, the insanity of the property "market" - yet this government's priority is to make it harder for people to protest. Especially if they want to make noise and be disruptive as they do so. Because we all know that being quiet and obediently following "the rules" is key to a successful protest.

I think this Cabinet sees energy price rises as a "price we all have to pay" as we move (apparently) beyond the worst of the covid pandemic, but they forget that ordinary people generally aren't able to have second jobs that pay them tens of thousands a year, allowing them to comfortably absorb the rise, even when they have multiple homes (hello, Rishi). Remember that they can claim for energy bills, too, for their second homes - because God forbid that MPs do the same as the rest of us and actually stay in their constituencies and work from home remotely - Rees-Mogg decided that was untenable.

Get angry! Write to your MP! Send them the article - ask them why the government is doing nothing.

@BattledoreAndShuttlecock

Yes the increase in the standing charge is partly to pay for the cost of sorting out all the small suppliers which went bust.

This increase is highly regressive because it impacts the lower income people even more.

No matter how much they reduce their energy usage, they still have to pay the standing charges

Its capitalism gone amok. It has to stop.

Yes. See twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1502671563530948610?s=20&t=lhipFOVHjaYN-zVwRZ7lug

@Mobeytrova

In petrol a lot of what we pay is tax. Will that drop in the next budget, I doubt it. Will they divert that money to fix the pot holes in the roads, I doubt it.

Exactly. It is their decision to increase prices and cost of living pushing people into poverty! And they're blaming everything and everyone else. Are people actually buying this? When are the next elections by the way?!

2025 isn't it for the next GE?? Either way they've been handed a majority so I can't see them being out if power before then.

@QuebecBagnet

I think we do need big poll tax type riots. I’m beginning to think a bit of anarchy is the way forward.

I predict riots before the year is through. People dont tend to riot in winter so maybe late summer before the energy price hike comes in in October.

Amazing that people rioted about poll tax, a sensible and fair idea, but not about this ridiculous profiteering that is affecting all of us much worse.

[quote NotNowFGS]Yes. See twitter.com/RichardJMurphy/status/1502671563530948610?s=20&t=lhipFOVHjaYN-zVwRZ7lug[/quote]
So it is out there, and not only in the guardian. I guess many people missed it. Feel really outraged that no one is noticing this shit...

Yes as I have read this country doesn't have an energy crisis it has a greed crisis.

The French government are absorbing more of the hike so it impacts people less.