To think ppl should be picketing energy prices not striking in their jobs.

[Goldandpurplezebra]

Just that really.

I think all these strikes are misplaced. Where is the uproar and picketing about the energy prices?! Is it happening and it's just not making the news?

I think the major increase in all these strikes is really because of the energy prices soaring. So people have less money in their pockets.

@MarshaBradyo i do understand that - it’s incredibly sad but we’ve done it now and we’ll pay the price for years.

Thats not a reason not to vote thrm in though. There is so much else they could try and achieve.

I would be at a protest in an instant. People saying 'you go and arrange it then' don't understand that your average Joe can't just go and arrange a protest. Nobody would turn up. Large scale protests need proper organisation by people who know what they're doing. I attend them regularly (anti racism mainly) and absolutely agree that we need large scale protests re energy prices - lots of them.

Back in the real world, supply and demand sets prices.

At the start of covid, oil futures went negative - the oil companies were having to pay people to take the oil.

I doubt you cared much about that that.

Now that global oil and gas prices have risen, you want oil companies to be forced to sell oil at below the market rate.

How would that work, given we import a lot of gas from Norway? Do you think they're going to sell it to us or to somebody willing to pay the going rate?

It's worrying how many Mumsneters seem to believe these 'everything should be free' fairytales peddled by third rate politicians and campaign groups.

The government aren't scared of energy companies, half this crop have shares in them and the other half are too busy trying to line-up a lucrative c-suite job with them for when they leave politics.

I doubt you cared much about that that

Do you work for BP? 😂

No-one cares because it was a blip. One blip in an extraordinarily long run of continuous high profits. I can't recall in my lifetime when big oil haven't turned massive profits because generally it's a cash cow (and a free one at that).

It's not a case if supply and demand when you're making record profits.

The tax corporations until they go elsewhere, as recently happened because another country was much lower rate, is just harming your own situation.

I think some believe everything should be free for them at the same time as taking all profits. Slight issue there - companies can choose where to set up. No tax on profits at all. Or jobs.

Most MP financial disclosures include investments in funds that include the energy companies. So they’re not going to vote for anything that reduces their portfolio values.

I found out my energy company, EDF actually lost £17bn in 2022 while most other energy companies made record profits.

BP had years of loses following the Deep Water Horizon disaster and the subsequent American Government shakedown (despite the rig being operated by the American company, Haliburton).

I don't work for BP and have never worked for BP. I do own shares in companies as part of my private contribution based pension.

Current prices are 100% due to supply and demand. The solution is to create more supply and/or decrease demand. High prices reduce demand and also encourage more exploration. The problem will fix itself, if we allow the market to work - but I suspect you also 'believe' in 'no more oil' / Net Zero and don't want more oil exploration and extraction (e.g. UK shale gas).

Back in the real world, supply and demand sets prices.

If the energy market were a free market, this would be true. Most basic courses in economics pretend all markets are free markets to simplify concepts and the maths.

But in the real world the energy market is not a free market. It is very tightly regulated in every country and further affected by international governmental agreements, so while prices are affected by supply and demand, they are not set by supply and demand.

I think they are two separate issues tbh.
Working conditions and staffing levels in nursing are abhorrent and unsafe and telling management does nothing. I take my hat off to the hcps still in it, I suffered major burnout and quit due to mental health.

The sheer profiteering of energy companies seems to me a separate issue but that compounds the above issue. However when certain members of serving gov have shares in energy companies, it's no surprise they don't give much of a fuck about the little people.

Picketing energy companies benefits everyone, striking is me me me.... there's your answer

I'll get my violin out 😂

Or, controversially, how about not making record profits while the poor are on their knees.

I agree that we absolutely need to reduce consumption and supply and demand are a thing. But not when it comes to essential resource.

I can see why they're happy to cash in. EV's will take over in 2030. Gas will be banned and the shift to renewables or nuclear will render big oil virtually redundant, especially when we're moving away from plastic too. But it's just pure greed to be making record profits when so many are suffering.

And we're talking profits here i.e. when all costs have been accounted for. Notwithstanding their aggressive tax avoidance strategies, which don't help either.

Your direct debit is wrong. Why are you letting them put it up to that, how much are you actually using?

OP doesn't seem to have a clue what it is on about.

The energy price cap is set by Ofgem - the regulator who granted all those licenses to energy company suppliers that went bankrupt and hadn't paid their levies to protect customers - and we're funding that by way of increased standing charges. Centrica could supply their subsidiary British Gas at cheaper rates but they're not allowed to.

The cost of rents has gone out of control, many people can't get mortgages even though they're paying more in rent than a mortgage would cost. You then have food and household costs. There's lots of criticism of the increased costs of branded goods - I use evaporated milk which Tesco brand is 59p, Carnation is £1:40 but in my village shop it's £2:19 and that's printed on the paper label. (Bookers, owned by Tesco, supply my village shop).

So as well as conditions which have changed after covid the cost of living for some people have increased massively.

£60 per month is very low, my yearly estimate is £1000 for very low usage, £300 is high but could include debt if the previous dd was too low. Unless it was £60 plus the government £67? Though, worth looking at the yearly estimate plus any debt then dividing by 12 to check, keeping in mind a price rise in April.

Energy prices are not set by the government, at least in the long term, because there is a global market for the fossil fuels that and the capital equipment (windmills, solar panels and such) that are used to "produce" energy. So YABU because government cannot sustainably control energy prices.

Government can control wages paid to people in the public sector. Public sector employees who strike are therefore asking government to change something that they can change, by increasing public sector wages in order to keep up with overall inflation of the goods and services they need.

I think the solution has to include increased wages, and increased taxation on money people make from not working (income and gains). Currently, money made from working is taxed much more heavily than money generated from capital wealth. That gap needs to be narrowed or even eliminated.

It may sound extreme, but I'd like to see Farage, Johnson, Gove, maybe Rees Mogg and a
few others tried for treason. They've trashed the country and ruined the economy for a generation for greed and because Johnson wanted to be Prime Minister...a post he was staggeringly unfit for.
There's no accountability for these crooks. Most of them fall upwards. I can't believe Truss has got the brass neck to be putting her oar in again.
The Tory party's many links with Russians and Russian money has been swept under the carpet too.

@beguilingeyes wouldn't that be nice.

Some idiot on another thread is saying that the economic crisis is because people can't budget any more.
Nothing to do with the government and the fact that wages are stagnant then.

Yes, all the nurses and paramedics who worked through covid are so selfish.

It's the people who want these services provided, but the workers not paid properly who are selfish.