To ask what the rest of (geographic) Europe are doing differently?

[CanIJustAskAnotherStupidQuestion]

I have friends and colleagues in Nordics, Spain, Italy, Germany and they all keep asking what the hell is going on in Britain, with double digit inflation and 80% increases in fuel costs. They don’t seem to be feeling all of this to the same extent.

So why is it happening here, and not so much elsewhere? I know that e.g. France hasn’t been hit with fuel bills for consumers because EDF is nationalised (but presumably that means they will get hit in taxes). But what about elsewhere?

Germany does NOT have 80% of its gas for autumn/winter stored and it would be impossible for the Germans to do so. The facts are

1. Germany has 23bn cubic meters of storage
2. They had a target for this to be 80% full by October.
3. The have reached this target already - 83.26% full on 30th August (19bn cu m)
4. German gas consumption is 90.5 bn cu m /year
5. In Winter consumption can easily reach 0.5 bn cu m / day
6. At the moment Germany has 42 winter days supply stored
7. If the storage was filled to 100% they would only have 50 winter days supply.

PS. Germany domestic production of gas is less than 10% of demand.

@jcyclops - my apologies. I was listening to an interview with the German ambassador on LBC and must have misunderstood the 80% figure.

@jcyclops. I'm glad you clarified this because I'd read an interview with three German mayors talking about how they were looking at ways to cut energy usage in their buildings and within the cities. But these threads always make me doubt myself because they always read as if it's only the UK that is having any problems. But I have friends in France and Holland and I know from them the worries and difficulties they're facing.
So thanks for the facts.

The EU is looking to introduce emergency measures, including decoupling gas from electricity which will change the pricing system

The UK is also looking at decoupling;

www.current-news.co.uk/news/government-to-consult-on-market-reform-with-urgency

I've heard Germany is looking at rationing gas?
Tbh I would rather we tried rationing, I mean we effectively have rationing, it's just that our rationing is going to be based on wealth, in that, the poor get next to nothing (because that's all they can afford) and the rich get all they want. At least proper rationing is more equitable.

I'd like to know where all this money is going anyway?
I'm sure the cost of production hasn't increased x10 so someone is making x10 the normal profit. If the government pays all our power bills, or we pay them, surely that would be the largest transfer of money, from the ordinary person, to the rich in history? Or maybe that was the banking crisis 2008?

Last I saw there were about 25 European countries with higher inflation than the UK. Spain was one of them so I'm not sure what your friend in Spain was going in about.

There was hardly any difference between the UK and average EU inflation in last figures I saw (July I think)

I had hoped this crisis might turbocharge green energy, unfortunately it seems to have done the opposite. If only David Cameron hadn't "cut all the green crap" and I do hope Truss doesn't rid the countryside of solar farms party members hate so much.

I don't understand why electricity is more expensive. Do they use gas to make electricity? Is it just greed?

Yes gas is used to produce about 40% of electricity. Bonkers, right?

Blame Blair. And those that followed him.

@Hobnobswantshernameback

I live in Spain and totally agree. If you can get out of the uk, do it . It really is fucking awful......I love living here.

Why is it Bonkers?

We decided coal was too dirty.
Nuclear was to scary.
Wind and solar are intermittent.

Only gas is left. And we are running out in the North Sea, and we don’t want to frack.

We are too precious to live in this world.