Energy companies going bust

[Macca]

I don't consider myself "Socialist" BUT; I feel very strongly that re-nationalisation of water, power and railways are a necessity.

Nor me but it makes no sense to privatise anything where real competition is impossible. So water, power, health, passenger trains, bus services should all be state-run amenities, not phony businesses that just add another layer of cost to the end user.

Obviously there's an issue with making sure state monopolies are run efficiently, we all recall how piss-poor and expensive BT was.

Also there will always be a natural move to the monopoly primarily serving its own interests rather than those of the citizen (e.g The BBC, the NHS) but there are ways to keep that in check if they are set in stone at the start.

[struth]

yeah shoot all the lawyers

[guy]

Nor me but it makes no sense to privatise anything where real competition is impossible. So water, power, health, passenger trains, bus services should all be state-run amenities, not phony businesses that just add another layer of cost to the end user.

Obviously there's an issue with making sure state monopolies are run efficiently, we all recall how piss-poor and expensive BT was.

Also there will always be a natural move to the monopoly primarily serving its own interests rather than those of the citizen (e.g The BBC, the NHS) but there are ways to keep that in check if they are set in stone at the start.

On the NHS, there are the Atnah brothers who specialise in buying the rights to "old" drugs/medications (still in use by the NHS). They specialise in rebranding then upping the price to the NHS by several hundred percent.

We should set up a nationalised drug manufacturing company which buys the rights, then sells to NHS at cost - no need to make a profit as NHS (hence taxpayer) would save over £200 million per year.
initial cost of setting up the company would be a brilliant investment for UK plc not to mention the creation (in this country!) of several thousand jobs, and positive effect on UK based suppliers.

Governments of all persuasions need to do a bit of "joined up thinking" imo

[Macca]

On the NHS, there are the Atnah brothers who specialise in buying the rights to "old" drugs/medications (still in use by the NHS). They specialise in rebranding then upping the price to the NHS by several hundred percent.

We should set up a nationalised drug manufacturing company which buys the rights, then sells to NHS at cost - no need to make a profit as NHS (hence taxpayer) would save over £200 million per year.
initial cost of setting up the company would be a brilliant investment for UK plc not to mention the creation (in this country!) of several thousand jobs, and positive effect on UK based suppliers.

Governments of all persuasions need to do a bit of "joined up thinking" imo

It sounds good on paper, maybe it would work I don't know. Problem with a lot of these good ideas is that when you look into you them in detail you find out there's multiple reasons they wouldn't work or would in fact be completely impossible. But we as laymen don't know enough to know that so to us it looks like a simple and obvious solution.

Then we go on to assume that the politicians must therefore be stupid, or incompetent and so forth. Despite the fact that they're the ones trousering a shitload of cabbage for basically doing fuck-all whilst we supposedly smart people slave away for a pittance.

[spendorman]

Just received an email from Shell Energy, they are taking over my account from Green.Energy. They say that any credit will be transferred. No price per KWh, or standing charge. I suppose that will come as a nasty surprise later!

Earlier in the day I had a representative of British Gas knocking on my door, I have had very bad experience with BG in the past, but I had a chat with the guy anyway.

[PeteT]

I have had very bad experience with BG in the past, but I had a chat with the guy anyway.

I had bad experience with BG once as well, I ended up billing them for my time, when they refused to pay I threatened the CEO with a small claims court action, had a phone call from a minion, and promise of immediate payment within minutes of it landing in his intray..!

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[hifi_dave]

Apologies if this has been mentioned previously but the energy companies are attempting to rip us off by charging far too much and banking the proceeds to tide them over the tough times.

EDF has just tried to double our bill which was fixed a few weeks ago. The excuse, of course, is rising wholesale prices but Martin Lewis and other pundits are pointing out that the rises should be no more than 12.5%, any more and they are taking the wee wee. The aim is for them to build up a healthy bank balance to cover any eventuality.

[spendorman]

Absolutely

[spendorman]

My supplier Green.energy went bust, I have been transferred to Shell Energy, the price per KWh for gas and electricity is not too bad, but the standing charge for both has gone up a lot. They say that any credit I have with Green will be transferred.

[Pigmy Pony]

According to the BBC, 47% of our gas is imported, 44% of it from Russia and Norway, and this will only increase year on year. Never mind all the bollocks about saving the planet, the government's green initiatives are about being less reliant on these gas bandits. Why can't they be honest about it?