Friday 26th August 2022 – Today is Doomsday Part One in the UK for millions and millions of people as OFGEM announce at 7am annual bills are predicted to soar to more than £3,500, leaving many struggling or unable to pay for heating, which will impact on their ability to eat, to pay all the other bills, to buy anything really and the impact will be felt across every sector of the UK basket case economy. Have you ever really wondered why? I have and trying to sift through the lies has not been easy.
The UK does not have as much capacity to store gas, forcing it to buy on the short-term spot market that sees greater volatility in prices
The Tory Government CHOSE in 2017 to close Centrica’s Rough storage facility, in the North Sea, which provided 70 per cent of the UK’s gas storage capacity for more than 30 years. It was shuttered after the Government refused to subsidise costly repairs. “The UK’s situation is more precarious than its European neighbours because of its very limited storage capacity,” analysts at HSBC warned in September last year.
The U.K.’s fully privatized energy market — which can be traced back to Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation drive in the 1980s
Thatcher and her Tory Government sold off British Gas in 1986 but the great sell off to her friends in the City started well before that.
- Gas, oil, telecommunications, various industries, transportation, water industries.
- British Petroleum 1979.
- British Gas privatised in 1986.
- British Telecom (BT) privatised in 1984.
- British Shipbuilders 1985.
- British Steel in 1988.
- Water, 10 of the state-owned regional companies privatised at the end of 1989
- Electricity privatised from 1990.
The result is millions and millions of people are going to be plunged into poverty, hunger, our economy could crash and we could face the biggest recession since the last great recession and the one after that and the one after that, yet another great recession that we always seem to face every single time the Tories are in power for any length of time, and as they continue to sell everything they can to their friends around the world on the cheap.
Because the system is entirely private, there’s very little that the government can do to intervene in this.”
Receiving “400 pounds, or 1,200 pounds in government support is not going to help very much in any shape or form with a further increase in bills being predicted when the next cap takes effect in January, with a typical bill forecast by analysts to peak at well over £5,000 later next year.
That lying bastard Boris Johnson has said that “Britons must endure their soaring energy bills because Ukrainians are “paying in their blood” for Russia’s invasion”. He is a lying Tory Bastard, virtually none of our energy comes from Russia, in fact last month we imported none. The simple fact is we are paying for Tory Greed, Tory Wars because we have been told by the USA Government, Tory delusion of Empire, Tory inbreeding and opposition incompetence.
Citizens Advice, said: “Every day our advisers help people in desperate situations: people who can’t get to the end of the month without a food bank voucher, parents unable to afford nappies and patients with no credit to call their GP.
“Without more support, the soundtrack to winter will be the beeping of emergency prepayment meter credit running out and the click of lights and appliances being turned off.”
This is what happens when you are politically illiterate, this is what happens when you are more concerned about the colour of people’s skin, this is what happens when you vote Tory in England, this is what happens when you do no nothing, like the SNP have done, to restore your own democracy for Scotland. This is what happens when you are colonised in all but name because the people you elected to win the arguments and get you out of this shit hole are either useless or bought and sold, or both.
So as we face doomsday day one, as our lying media tell you it is Putin in Russia who has caused this pain, as Sturgeon makes platitudes that even Blahford would be proud of just remember this is down to Tory Greed and opposition incompetence, and the cowardice, ignorance, greed, and fear of 55% of Scots who voted no in 2014.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
That was a good article Bruce; horrific and very sobering; thank f**k I’m not there, but living in Germany. I’ve just one gripe – in 2014, 54% of SCOTS voted YES. It was the incomers, the so-called white settlers that pushed the vote in the other direction. The franchise is crucial if we are ever to have a say again.
ngataki5
That is a fair point which I often forget, then when it gets raised you do tend to get accused of the blood and soil nonsense when it is a legitimate subject to discuss. The UK has made a total arse of the energy crisis as they do everything. When you look at their record when in government for any length of time there is a recession but they have never learned or they don’t care, I’ll err on the don’t care side to be honest. At least EU countries are trying to do something while Westminster are on holiday, sums up the UK doesn’t it.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
The consumer energy companies will survive come hell or high water because privatised, deregulated markets are the core of Tory plans for the future. If the government intervenes with anything other than a token gesture then business is going to consider the UK a much more risky proposition. As a result the price caps will continue to be raised to ensure that no more energy supply companies go out of business in the future.
This is also the reason why there will be no talk of a National Energy Company because, guess what, the vast majority of the energy sources are north of the border, and restricting access is not something the globalist, neo-liberal SNP would ever dream of doing.
Stuart
You are spot on, I was thinking the SNP were just incompetent, which they are, but you are correct about the neo-liberal aspect of the SNP which I do tend to try to ignore as I live in hope but there is little hope in the SNP any more I guess. The energy companies are a disgrace, but that was always the plan with the Tories, profit before life. At the very least we should be capping the raises at there level before today or at the very least tax their profits at something like 90%. However, I do think the cost of living crisis is going to come to a head and the Tories won’t see out another two years if people are willing to act in larger numbers and the unions can keep up their action, even when the Tories make us the most un friendly trades union nightmare in the western world.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Bruce, I have no idea how good you are at your day job but you are a dam fine blogger.
Cubby
Thank you that is very kind. The blog has always just been my opinion while encouraging others to express theirs no matter what that opinion is. I am a Community Education Worker by day working with young people pretty much. Others are a better judge as to if I am any good at it but it had been about 28 years now in total so maybe I have done not too bad.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a now 60+ Female.
It should be pointed out that it is not just Tory governments but English governments. Even if England elected a Labour government not much would have changed. Labour have either backed all of the above or have abstained thus giving tacit consent. The worst aspect is that much of what was sold off and privatised was Scottish in origin. The English government(s) raped and pillaged Scotland for their own benefit while deindustrializing Scotland, destroying communities the length and breadth of Scotland and are continuing to do so with the help of the Scottish SNP government. Now they include the renewables industry in with the privatisation strategy and are revisiting fracking. Who cares what happens to the people? They are viewed no more than company assets akin to a biro. When they run dry (die) they are just replaced. They have nothing to fear from them as they will literally put up with anything. The 70s and 80s is going to look like a picnic by the time the full effect of what is currently happening hits. Will Scots be content to wait a further year, two or more? Or will they assert their sovereign authority and demand an end to it all now?
Gayle
A depressingly accurate reflection of Scotland’s recent history. You have to wonder how much pillaging Scots are willing to take. I used to blog that YES wouldn’t surge until people were hungry and cold, dying on the streets, I am not sure that is even enough for a certain group of Scots anymore. It really is sad the state the UK is in and it is all down to the Tories from 79 onwards yet people vote for these pricks and Labour are just the whores of FPTP, say and do anything to feather their own nest, and sadly the SNP would appear to be going the same way now with their 3rd rate politicians and that is being kind to them. The next 6 months are going to be sadly horrific and interesting at the same time. If things get as bad as people say then you have to expect this Tory Government to fall when the English take to the streets, Scots won’t take to the streets, we will ask for more but the English will and sadly we will have to rely on them for change.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Labour will not even discuss the possibility of renationalising any aspect of the energy supply.
Labour against nationalisation.
SNP against Scottish independence.
How times change.
Venezuala had exported oil and gas to the British but no longer does because the British are withholding Venezuela’s gold in a vault at the Bank of England. Germany would not sign off Nordstream2 a long time before the Ukraine war. Nordstream1 has been undergoing scheduled maintenance and Canada refused to send back the serviced turbines for Nordstream1 to function. Russia was willing to provide cheap gas/ oil to friendly countries and indeed some European countries continue to import from Russia.
There is a lot more to the Ukraine war than the so called MSM tell you. The British also continue to flood Ukraine with weapons rather than try to achieve peace. Europe is shooting itself in both feet.
AlbaP
I do think that the Ukraine/Russia war is a proxy war between Russia and the USA. I have no sympathy for Putin but he warned NATO to stop moving East, they didn’t listen and the Ukraine is paying while the UK is happy to play the poodle while thinking it is important when we are no more important than the illusions that infect Tory minds. This crisis has been coming since 79 and the start of Thatcher’s plan to make the UK the most de-regulated shit hole in the world where the peasants are kept in their place and the 1% stay on top. You can’t make up how shit this colony is any more.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Totally agree 👍
Not entirely off topic but this article is well worth reading. May I suggest that whoever helps Scottish families to get through the coming winter will harvest votes?
http://robinmcalpine.org/someone-has-to-start-acting-like-they-have-responsibility-for-the-wellbeing-of-the-people-of-scotland/
Ben
I agree with Robin in that the crisis will need to be managed at a community level to begin with which will include us all where we can and local councils with what they have. Local councils will have to come up with warm buildings with some sort of food element built in to them where they can. They will have to redeploy staff to support these where they can given the mix of people who may have to attend them and health and safety etc. It will be little but it will be something. If we can put something in the foodbank box then we should and if we can reduce our energy consumption we will have to and not just for the money we might be able to harvest personally. We are paying the price for Tory de-regulation and our own cowardice and ignorance in my opinion and while the fix starts with us it is long term and needs to impact the political parties we can influence, the SNP can be changed if the members desire it, Labour to a degree also if momentum can get a foot hold again, I might actually blogg about that.
Thanks for commenting and for the link.
Bruce
Spot on, grumpy. Almost of our woes, as the UK and Scotland, can be laid at the door of the Tories and privatisation, centralisation and neoliberalism and non-interventionism/proper regulation.
As for the lies that are told about Russian energy supplies, it is par for the course. I listened to the BBC news about a couple of weeks ago, and the reporter was pontificating about the dangers to us all of a nuclear explosion many times worse than Chernobyl because the Russians were occupying the biggest nuclear plant in Europe, situated in Eastern Ukraine.
He got suitably excited, announcing that shells were falling very close to this facility, occupied by the Russians who were treating the technicians and scientists therein as slaves, and that Ukraine could be wiped out and we could all suffer if this nuclear plant was breached. Er… right, so who were the intellectually-challenged or downright malign who were shelling it? Not the Russians, surely, if they were in occupation and keeping it turning over? So, who? It had to have been the Ukrainians. Duh! I do not hold at all with the Russian invasion, but, in the name of the wee man… ! The Russian scorched earth has taken on a whole new meaning. Now, a couple of weeks later, we are being told that the UN is calling for a demilitarised zone around the facility. Do none of these journalists ever ask the pertinent questions, even the obvious ones? What has happened to the profession? Lickspittles and robots. We are being fed lies about, literally, everything now and most of them make no sense at all.
lorncal
I’ll be honest I haven’t followed the Ukraine/Russian conflict all that much since the start. I have no trust in Putin or any of them, I knew a little that this conflict had more to it than the shit that we got fed but given that the news was so bias I just opted out. I am sorry it is happening, it is always the poorest and the innocent who suffer but the EU/USA response for me just makes it worse and is a huge contradiction, it’s a proxy war is my thinking and the UK trying to play the big man an embarrassment. I also blame the state we are in on the Tories and the appeasement of the opposition over the years, I include all the parties in that. I appreciate there are no easy answers and that the state we are is more complicated but at the end of the day something has to give and with independence not happening anytime soon I would rather have a Labour Colonial Government than a Tory one.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
The goto sight for understanding what’s at play in the geopolitical world is:
Larouche Organisation/ Schiller Institute. Harley Schlanger delivers daily updates.
I never miss it…..
bruceuk
Thanks I will check it out.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce