To think this is very morally wrong

[Lovelycupofcoffee]

So I read today that energy companies are making huge profits and some of their directors are getting paid huge bonuses. I find this absolutely disgusting when there are families choosing between paying electric bills or cutting back on feeding their family . Could the government not step in and shop this ? Come October it’s going to get worse but surely we shouldn’t have to be choosing between food or paying our electric bill. If these companies are making so much money why increase the standing charge for gas/ electric? There is something very wrong here.

Oh dear. It’s this sort of fairytale attitude that simplifies something as complex as energy security. This isn’t about party politics or socialism vs capitalism. Only if it was that simple.

Its about forward planning, infrastructure investment and investment economic productivity (not something socialists are known for being competent at).

Our political system is full of mediocrity and has been since Thatcher. You didn’t have to agree with Thatcherism to know that she got stuff done. Our politicians since 1997 have been coasting like the mediocre, wet wipes that they are.

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@ChubbyCaterpillar because it’s the foreigners’ fault, or the EU’s fault, or Gordon Brown’s fault

Here is the UN Secretary General's take on it. I absolutely agree with him.

You agree with a dude who heads an institution known for never getting anything done. Never listen to anything that the UN says. UN officials are failed domestic politicians who were not astute enough to get important jobs in real governments - one rung below the incompetents who failed in the first place.

Couldn't agree more

What is the answer? Seriously, party politics and ideology aside…wtf can be done?

That is because the government sold our national energy companies.

Awful. YANBU.

Frack now, build Nuclear power for the next 50 years and go big offshore wind for the subsequent 100 years.

This is simply a vague personal attack on the UN. You are not disagreeing with anything he says/ Do you understand what he is saying? And if yes what do you think about it?

The answer is a much lower energy price cap.

Do you remember the first lockdown when people were panic buying pasta?

Most of the supermarkets rationed the pasta and limited you to two bags or something, if there was any at all.

They didn’t have to do that. They could have jacked up the price to £3 a bag and made a fortune. That is what economists say happens when there are shortages.

It didn’t happen, because the supermarkets were scared of the backlash they would get for profiteering.

The energy companies aren't as scared of the backlash as the supermarkets were.

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The energy companies know we have no choice.
The government needs to set a much lower price cap.

The government is too busy counting the extra tax income.

Surely it’s hardly a surprise that a Tory government will always choose business over ordinary people. It’s what they do. And all of those ordinary people who chose to vote for them because they thought Boris was a laugh, were delusional if they thought the Tories would ever do anything different.

twitter.com/eiecampaign/status/1556729335821881346?t=zf-N2zBRJkjgsznoqHigLg&s=19

Given the popularity of the SNP, it will be forever before we get a change of government witht he current undemocratic first past the post system - make votes matter, support PR if you want to see a change from this bunch of idiots.

www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/

I quite like that Shell is my provider can genuinely direct my anger at them. There are so many ways to solve this - am very surprised Labour so quiet

This winter millions will be in debt - with no way of making the payments, other people not paying out of principle - it’s going to get serious

It could work if capitalist fuckers didn't upset it every time it looked to be working. It's also not communism just because the people in power call it that. ie China.
But back to the disaster that's free market capitalism - Thatcher made the country selfish and we are reaping what was sown back then. All the selling off of our companies etc. Outsourcing to foreign (mostly) companies when we could just create those jobs in the public sector instead. I blame the tories and those who vote for them.

He’s just regurgitating the easy simplistic line because it’s popular. It doesn’t work and it solves nothing in the long term.

You can’t tax your way out of these problems - refer to latest debacle with the windfall tax announced on UK oil companies. The projected receipts will be less than half those planned - according to latest estimates. The original amount of £5bn was not enough to touch the sides in the first place.

The problem is the lack of energy self sufficiency. It’s simple supply and demand. We have to produce more. Taxing to pay others to produce more does NOT somehow mean we have more energy security. It just mean more in revenue for net exporters.

The companies selling you energy aren’t making massive profits, several have gone bust.
The companies producing the energy (some companies both produce and sell to you) they are making a fortune

Exactly. It seems as though 99% of the population simply do not understand this.
The companies we're paying the huge increase in iur bills to, are not the ones profiting. They in their turn, are having to pay equally huge increases to the companies who supply them.
And those companies are charging what the international agreement on fuel price obliges them to charge in order to control the much decreased supply. Though those companies don't decide the price, the difference is that they get to hang on to the cash.

So who pays the difference between the much lower cap and the market price?

Nobody.
The market price is currently far too high leading to companies making record profits. It is profiteering. And the government need to intervene.

The energy companies aren't as scared of the backlash as the supermarkets were.

As I explained above, the energy companies have far less control over the price they have to charge than supermarkets did and do.