Anger at forth coming COL crisis

[MyCheekyEagle]

Of course I understand that the ME war is going to have an impact on oil prices & that will get passed onto the already struggling families; but when things stabilise again & maybe oil prices reset the greedy corporatez never pass this saving back to customers fo they. They just think as we've got used to these new higher prices we'll just keep them there. This thought has given me the rage most of today!
Just needed to vent somewhere, thanks if you listened..

But regulation is bad remember. Almost every party parrots the same line about removing regulation and red tape to increase growth etc. Actually some regulation is unhelpful and some is needed. But in areas of business where there are huge sums of money to be made (monopolies) you have the best minds money can buy arrayed against politicians for whom it might not be their area of expertise, plus massive amounts of energy put into lobbying, plus huge sums of money in salaries to offer politicians leaving office. Either you have politicians/civil servants who know nothing about the industry OR you have politician/civil servants who are part of the industry and therefore potentially compromised. And some of the people wanting to profit will also own newspapers etc or have stakes in media companies so can make it politically uncomfortable for politicians to press for greater regulation or enforcement.
I'm not saying regulation can never work. But there is a huge amount of pressure and vested interest pushing in the direction of toothless regulation of monopolies. You need very exceptional (not just competent) people to push back adequately. And we can't rely on those people existing.
I just think that for true monopolies (water etc) privatisation is the worst option even if (with exceptionally foresight and integrity) regulation can trim its worst excesses.

@persephonia

Almost every party parrots the same line about removing regulation and red tape to increase growth etc.

It's over 40 years since I started working as an accountant so have been very interested in business and financial aspects of Government over 4 decades. Yes, every one of them parrots off about "simplification" or "bonfire of red tape" or the ridiculous "office of tax simplification", but it's all re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titannic. Sometimes something is changed for the better, but then it gets changed again a few years later and we're back to square one.

Too many civil servants/politicians/consultants who just want to make a name for themselves (or make a shed load of cash) by changing something for the sake of it, whether needed or not, then it gets changed again a few years later when the personnel involved have changed and everyone's forgotten. There seems to be collective amnesia in the corridors of power as the see-saw changes to and fro, and things which were previously scrapped or downgraded suddenly come back into force again for no obvious reason/benefit.

Remember the "bonfire of the Quangos" - well that never happened either - just re-arranged the depts, changed the names, and we ended up with more and more powerful, less answerable ones.

On a different vein, but similar aspects, our local council have changed a road layout around 5 times, basically every several years, they change it. But the traffic management civil servants have changed each time and the new people don't seem to have any knowledge of how it used to be, and likewise the councillors change too often too, so they don't know. We've ended up with the same see-saw and currently have the road layout virtually identical to what it was 40 years ago, having been changed several times over those decades. I mentioned it to our local village councillor, who was honestly surprised when I showed him pictures of it from 40 years ago (I had photos due to taking pictures of a precession of vintage vehicles attending a rally!) - he couldn't believe how similar it was to the latest change which had cost tens of millions!! Same with our nearest city's one way system - expensive new initiatives every few years costing millions to "solve" the traffic problem which is basically reversing a few one way streets back to how they were before the system was last "solved" a decade ago.

Same with limited company accounts for Companies House filing. The laws/rules change every few years, but part of those changes is reversing the changes previously made, so some aspects are back to how they were a decade ago, some back to how they were 30 years ago etc. It's all pointless change for the sake of change. I attending a companies accounts course and the speaker (who is a company accounts author and specialist) was tearing his hair out as he explained all the changes, many of which took us back to how things were years ago, and exasperated at the length of time and cost of the consultations and reviews that led to the latest changes!

@Badbadbunny A few years ago, on a very windy day, i was sprayed by a famer working in totally unsuitable conditions, got home v quickly and showered, contacted the Council - nothing to do with us, speak to Defra, Defra - speak to the Environment agency - EA - speak to the council..... and now, i would find a chatbot in the way and phone numbers that direct you to their "on-line" services.

All these public funded bodies, all the rules and regs on agri sprays - a complete waste of money.

I worked for a private defence contractor, the waste, the contractual shenanigans, all the additional tabs picked up by the tax payer as costs went up and up and up.

We have a Competitions Authority, by the time they have finished working hand in hand with the industry - IF there was any wrong doing & a fine, it would be paid for by the company, who in turn, increase prices to cover it.

Its all a scam which the tax payer/consumer funds.

The Tories came up with it first actually. Apparently it works out cheaper than the legal fees to fight any challenges.

You know their accounts are published, yes? So you can literally see their revenue streams.

There always seems to be a reason to raise prices, but never a reason to drop them…. Makes me mad.

Until last week pump prices were lower than the early 2000's when truckers went on strike etc as petrol was in the £1.40's. It's been less than that for years now in many places.

So suggesting the "corporatez" (sic) never pass savings back to customers is ridiculous. The price of fuel varies according to taxes, the price of crude, transportation, refining capacity etc etc. But yeah "corporatez" >>rolls eyes<<

It's such bad timing. I've just lost my job and husband is getting a pitiful 1% pay rise yet everything else is going up by 5-10%. I'm fed up!

I agree with most of your points..
But do not think we tax our high earners to death. I think you may find that if you scratch the surface

Many high earners have the best tax evasion. Sorry avoidance advice with overseas investments, offshore accounts and trusts etc.

I don't think they will be applying for Universal Credit anytime soon..
Do you?

You know as well as I do that there has been and still is exploitation of the customer base to achieve that level of profit increase.

I honestly don't get why no one else thinks it's both bizarre and outrageous to go from £72 million to £3.5 billion in less than five years. During a crisis

But there is always someone ready to explain it away like it's just normal and "that's how private businesses work".

It's a national disgrace that companies like British Gas are allowed to get away with it while also providing less than stellar customer service.
They certainly aren't alone but they stand out with their blatant profiteering.

@HopSpringsEternal I remember campaigning for Friends of the Earth in the 70's over developing clean energy so this has been going on much longer than 30 years. Yes clean energy would be lovely but mines were closed and drilling for oil stopped before we were anywhere near ready and it left huge gaps in our energy and thousands of people without jobs and towns are still suffering decades later. We still have hundreds of years worth of coal under our feet yet we import it and then shout about how green we are because we don't mine for fossil fuels anymore. Bonkers. Same with oil. Same with gas. Shop building, steel and car manufacturing are all industries that have been destroyed by successive governments so we have the privilege of buying from other countries, some of whom would wish us harm. Nuts.

@Badbadbunnyits exactly the same in the NHS. Rebranding. Rebranding what ffs? It's the NHS! I was told we have to "compete". Who the bloody hell with? It's the NHS! Oh let's drag in a new manager or ten and they come up with "brilliant ideas ". Then things don't work as well so a few more changes over a few more years and hey presto! we are back where we were at the start with the plan that was working well then and the reason it worked was because it had evolved over time and was the best fit. Makes me sick.

100% this! Virtue signalling at the highest level while the ideological leaders grind the country down to nothing of any significance.
It’s considered to be a British failing of leadership to ‘ do better than the rest’ gold stamping every law that passes our way as was the case with the EU laws. We are so damn good at biting our nose of despite our face in the desire to ‘ go above and beyond’ all the other countries. It’s complete madness!

Yes new managers making changes for the sake of change to justify their positions. Where is the leadership focused on outcomes rather than process? We are royally ‘Up shits creek’!

Rachel Reeves had an opportunity to apply windfall tax on the big bank but the banks threatened to move out of the UK. The deals have now been done with the promise of 1000’s of jobs here in the UK. She took the bait and hiked taxes on the ‘Working people’and small business while keeping an eye on the prize of a lucrative position on the board of directors with the said big banks once she leaves office. The tried and tested career path of a retired politician scratching the backs of the their paymasters. Rachel Reeves a socialist, my arse she is!

When I was in Japan recently they had solar panels on a lot of ‘ waste ‘ areas like train embankments and bus stop roofs . Having said that our local forestry area put solar panels on the toilet block but they don’t work so you have to pee in the dark or by phone torch .

But that means your pensions and investments won’t do well if the profits aren’t being made . The whole system is so interlinked they’ll get you somewhere .

Pensions and other investments are very widely spread, very few will be 100% equities (pensions would be in the region of 40 to 60%) and retail fuel and energy make a very small part of the mix.

The Govt could, as other European countries have done and restrict price rises but they wont, either they cannot or don't wont too.

As for Windfall taxes on profits, the consumer will never see the benefit and companies can hike prices to cover for these.

@hattie43 "Having said that our local forestry area put solar panels on the toilet block but they don’t work so you have to pee in the dark or by phone torch".

Why don't they work? Is it because they are in a forest and there isn't enough sunshine? 😳
I wonder what muppet signed that project off ??

Even that doesn't excuse what's going on.

Toilet block will be in an open area, prob next to a visitor centre and or car park & will need batteries and inverter.

They might not work for a variety of genuine reasons, none of which you will know about but you jump in with "some muppet" without even knowing the site.

"Toilet block will be in an open area, prob next to a visitor centre"

So you don't actually know where it is either?

Because people can’t afford the costs and aren’t convinced they work . If they are such a holy grail I can’t understand why you wouldn’t expect everyone to be buying electric cars , solar panels , heat pumps etc and just what is the point when half our housing stock is not compatible with these green options . The only people rushing to champion this is red ed and the chattering middle classes . No one else gives a stuff because they are too busy trying to exist and put food on the table .

It’s a valid point though . If you sign off on something you should have done your due diligence and considered possible reasons for not working and resolved them .
its sited in the open next to the car park

I've seen several Labour Governments and they always wreck the economy.

You must be ancient then @Chickenlittlesmum. I’m 72 and this is my second one since the 1970s. Far from wrecking the economy the Blair/Brown governments ran it extremely well for ten years, the deficit was low and stable and public services were improved consistently. Economists’ assessment of Brown is that he was one of the best chancellors we’ve ever had. If you want an example of wrecking the economy Truss was outstanding, she managed to bring it to its knees in seven weeks.