Fuel help thinking

The government is bankrupt, the country is bankrupt. There is no money left to pay for anything.

The tax changes for the abolition of the 10p rate come into effect this month, a change which was not planned, but was forced on the government in an effort to bribe the electorate in a bye-election which they lost, and lost miserably.

I feel sorry for Alastair Darling, he seems to be having to sort out the awful mess the Prime Minister, who stills thinks and acts as a chancellor, keeps putting his nose in the trough.

Could that not be one of the problems with Gordon, he wants to take all and any praise going but will never accept his collosal mistakes. I have to ask the question, is Gordon nearing breaking point?

He must know that he is finished. He is PM not President and he also is beginning to realise that he will have to deal with a new Republican President rather than Obama.

This government is at the end of its days. Please put us out of our misery. Whatever has happened to the Education Maintenance Allowance Payments.

Some of us have not forgotten about the problems when Parliament comes back, of 42 days detention, also they still have not properly resolved the questions over abortion. These issues cannot be ignored for much longer.

Keep bringing the news Nick, Gordon is in his bunker, and he just won't admit it. Labour will implode at the general election when it comes, annihilation in Scotland is ineitable.

This is the right decision. We need to get it into our heads that the cost of energy will now rise inexorably as demand from developing nations surges, supplies dwindle, energy states steer precious fuel resources towards their own citizens and, ultimately, we start to fight each other for control of these resources. Cash handouts are little more than gesture politics when the serious issue is how do we prepare our nation to live sustainably without oil and gas? The sooner we figure this one out and take steps towards a totally new (18th Century?) way of life, the better. Yes, the era of cheap energy is indeed over. Read the Olduvai Theory (https://tinyurl.com/acvg8%29 to see what we're really up against.

pathetic.

there is not even any sign that the government are in control of either events or the country.

of course - labour failure to invest in new power plant or to regulate the utility markets over the years are the root cause of this specific issue - but lets be frank. the government are out of their depth and can't manage there way out of a paper bag.


as for tacklingcharles clarke - I would be surprised - gordon prefers to duck reality and real challenges. he exists in a theoretical and ideological world.

neither gordon or labour can handle reality or the delivery of results.

..... pseudo results (non specific or measurable charles-e-h) they can do...... i.e. the elimination of poverty or more choice in education.

It is not oil and gas you need to worry about #2. It's the water, all over the world. You can live without oil and gas, you cannot live without water, and that is the unmentioned real problem.

I presume any 'help' for 'families' will be at the expense of childless single people as per usual?

Funny how easy it is to find 2.7 billion for a by-election bribe, yet how extraordinarily difficult it is to find funds to ensure citizens don't freeze to death. That's Labour.

Gordon Brown is so hard he can smash atoms between his bum cheeks and turn them into free energy.

Problem solved.

I'm not an engineer, nor a scientist, but what I see as I go around town makes me realise how little effort is going into conserving fuel. Shops and shopping malls are heated to a level which makes moving around an effort. Then, to combat the extreme heat, many shops have fans running to try and make life a little more comfortable. The Superdrug chain are one of the biggest culprits, and I feel sorry for their poor staff members sweating away. Waterstones and WH Smiths the booksellers are others who seem to overheat their premises and then try to cool them down simultaneously with fans. A complete, expensive failure. Travelling by bus it is amazing that drivers cannot turn off the heating, and sitting on the inside seat on the side where the driver is seated is a miserable experience. Once the winter commences, many households are overheated, then the residents complain when receiving high bills. A little exercise, or if this isn't possible, an extra sweater would enable the thermostats to be reduced to a more economical, and dare I say it, healthier level.

5# pttp

"childless single people"

Do you need to declare an interest there?

If any sort of help was given you'd call that a "bribe" anyway.

Remember the winter fuel payment levels of 1997? Remind us,was it £10?

#7

Try coming to Exeter. They have built a new shopping Mall which is open to the elements. So what do the shops do, keep their doors open so that the hot air they produce goes right out into the street. Can't have customers having to push a door open, they may hurt their back!

This from a green City.

As for trees, the Cathedral Green had some beautiful trees, what do they do chop them down because of health and safety, a branch fell off last year, so the trees must go.

They build over a hundred flats, can they sell them, no, they were sold off plan but now nobody wants to complete, can't wait for the court cases. Same with new estates, all the sales offices closed, builders laid off.

The council doesn't want a unitary Devon so they are wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds on a campaign, 'Don't be a Loser' our local MP is labour. How pathetic the politicians have become.

ceh @ 6

that was actually very funny.....

....but you still owe us the definition of the positive signs that you have been tracking concerning a labour recovery.


.... don't tell me..... the good news is that gordon and his cheeks are personally hooked up to the new particle accelerator at cern..... and soon gordons rear end will be powering the world for free.


....at last an end of 'energy based wars'. to think all this time I had just thought gordon was a no hoper without a plan!

Labour give my tax money back to me, so i can give it to a foreign owned utility company, that are bleeding this country dry to subsidise their domestic markets, thanks to an earlier Tory privatisation of said utilities. When does the music stop? Then again if the only way for lazy westerners to think about conserving their energy resources is to make it a pain in their pocket, who's to complain?

re: 7

Yeah, I went into Waterstones the other day, the heating was on full blast and the windows were all fogged up! Thought I'd walked into a hothouse!

re: 8

To quote Aristotle by way of Rand, A is A.

What our utterly mendacious government is keeping quiet about, is that the one-off fuel payment wheeze was actually squashed by the EU. Just in case the EU becomes even less popular.
May I propose the introduction of an annual Patricia Hewitt Award for Outstanding Denial of the Truth?

The country is not 'bankrupt'. ID cards and the wars cost £30billion. It is a matter of priorities. This will be compounded when Millibrowneron unquestioningly support a President McCain inspired attack on Iran or even Russia.

Scotland will vote SNP to avoid a Tory government in London and to engender some socialism that works rather than the weak knees of the English who when there are problems move even further to the right.

To me, the energy decision appears to be New Labour of old, compromising with big business so they can voluntarily do the odd bit of energy saving here and there for the poor who can't afford their fuel bills anyway. The mass of people will just face higher and higher bills and the energy companies (who put Shareholders first, Directors second and the customer a poor third) will want to recover the cost of this 'investment'.

As Labour are facing landslide defeat and possibly 20 years out of power, they should do some things to reduce the scale of the defeat and get their core vote out, enthused. Some decisive action on windfall taxes, ID cards, the wars etc could even actually work and galvanise more positive opinion in this country.

For Brown read Callaghan. For Cameron read Thatcher. By this I mean if people thought Callaghan was bad the country was crippled by Thatcher by 1981. This time of course, permanent and higher energy and food prices and a President in the US ready to shoot and ask questions later will be a heady cocktail for political and economic unrest which - ionically - will have us looking at the Blair years as many view the 60s now with nostalga.

re: 10

The hot air produced by Hogwash should be enough to warm our pensioners until Brown's bottom can be hooked up to CERN.

Bear in mind folks that financial help for domestic fuel for those who need it most, older people is, as a matter of fact rather than opinion, lets say 5 times higher in real terms over 10 times higher than it was in 1997.

Just a fact to ponder when slagging off everything this government has done

Just listened to GB's speech, Not a lot to offer but a bit of cold comfort.
I was hoping for, the short term, some sort of help.
The weather is not good now and it can only get colder.
Gorden Brown is obsessed in green energy to meet his EU goals, any money seems to be bypassing the here and now to achieve his pet goal of EU approval.

6 CEH

Been looking at your past postings and without doubt you have moved in your outlook.

Perhaps when you are PM for the Karma Party you could employ Brown to manage your energy policy not just cracking the atom but blowing on the the wind farms bound to increase the output.

But to be serious the total energy costs form whatever source are with us whether we like it or not. Windfall tax is not the answer in the short or long term, as individuals we have to cut our cloth accordingly and have to give up thingsperhaps we could do without.

The list is considerable but for example,
Sky, Fags, Booze, etc etc. take up cycling, try taking holidays in the UK, dig up the lawn and plant spuds. Yes we now are in a new world, and new labour will just sit on the side lines...why the cupboard is bare.

re: 16

That must be why they're doing such a wonderful job.

The pinkos are all out tonight
Insisting that Labour is right
To con us and fleece us
And endlessly police us,
I'd laugh if it wasn't so trite!

#19

Gosh, I wish I was clever enough to think up those brilliant little ditties!

Keep it up and when 'Dave' and his gruesome shower are back in power, I expect you to deliver some biting lines to match their crimes.

@14

I found myself agreeing with you at fisrt. but by the end of your comments..... nope disagree I am afraid.


thatcher 81 - things were bad cos she forced the country to take its medicine. she broke the strike prone work shy culture in the country and forced us (the majority - not all) to work hard and to compete with foreign countries.


blair - nostalgia - the 60's.... you are having a laugh surely!? the country got economically fit in the 80's and 90's. blair has ridden a wave of economic success created by his predecessors.

.....gordon brown (although jointly responsible) is now riding blairs economic inheritance.

get real......

If the issue was the provision of heating and cooking in our homes, well I'm sorry folks but labour and the Tories missed the boat on this question twenty years ago.

Sizewell B should have been the first of many in the last generation of nuclear power stations built to provide 30-40% of our energy to 2040.

With the awakening to global warming, we would now, NOW, have time to develop green energy sources (why isn't it mandatory that every new house built today and for the last 6/7years has solar cells covering 50% of its roof area?) clean coal -if such a thing exsists though we do have 300years of the stuff! is a technology we should be worldleaders at... selling to the Chinese!

Instead the Tories followed by Labour chickened out of the hard decisions they where elected to take.

I dispair at the fact that the term 'public servant' seems to be consigned to History, as far as this Labour government is concerned.

16 eaton trifle / eaton mess

..... the least surprising insight of the last 20 years is that people live longer and the number of people alive at retirement age is increasing rapidly.

therefore thank god that labour had the foresight to:

1 - avoid building new power plants at a time when many power plants need to be decomissioned. "power should cost a lot - die of cold oldies."

2 - tax pensions - force pension funds into the red. "keep working oldies - we want to tax you until you expire"

3 -nhs - but don't live too long oldies cos hip replacements are expensive. why not visit one of our hospitals at the end of your "tax life" and sample the mrsa or cdif?

Brown must be an idiot! Did he really think the Energy companies were going to fork over £billions to rescue his Government? They earned that money; oil and gas doesnt just appear at a power station ready for use, it takes £trillions in investment and thousands of employees slaving away. If we want a low carbon future then it is going to cost money and taking money from companies today will only stop them from investing it tomorrow. If the socialists don't like that then maybe they could strike and turn off all their lights; give us all a break.

It is odd that nobody will take the other side of the bet that says that fuel suppliers will quickly lower prices as the price falls as they quickly raised prices when the price rose!

Toothless, and spineless Regulators!

To those who blame the present Government for all of our energy problems - remember "Sid" the man that Mrs Thatcher wanted you to tell when the utilities were privatised - to fiddle the national accounts. Once privatised and the golden shares were sold off it is absolutely inevitable that these monopolies will overcharge as there is no mechanism to stop them. (That is: don't blame Gordon Brown blame the Tories that privatised them in the first place!)

It’s all very well pointing the finger at Joe Public and saying the days of cheap energy are over and we need to save for the future. I seem to remember in the late 90s, warnings that the oil was scheduled to run out around 2015. What have any governments done to prepare for alternative energy - SWEET NOTHING! We have hummed and haaed and listened to the Greens - stop burning oil and coal or anything else! Stop nuclear energy! Stop wind farms! Don’t use the Severn Estuary for tidal energy. Having dithered for years, will someone have the guts to make a decision that will provide us with some form of affordable energy? We live in a cool part of the world. We need heat. We have a government that is now suggesting nuclear energy. Hurrah! That will only take 20 years to come on stream. At nearly 60 years old, I may never see it! And another thing! You keep telling us that there is no money to help us. Well where had the money gone?
In particular Gordon Brown introduced the Eco tax on all flights. The government has also benefited ob a percentage basis on the VAT on fuel – as fuel / heating oil went up so did the tax revenue. So where has this money gone? This government is beginning to make Maggie Thatcher look like Santa!

re: 20

Lol ta. And you can be sure I shall. At the moment I feel neutral towards the Tories, but wary--- though this is nothing to the burning hatred I feel towards Labour. When Labour are removed from office for good and can't do any more harm, I shall set to work doing my bit to discredit the Tories.

In my lifetime I expect to see an English parliament. But for this to happen, and real democracy to be established, we have to first

1) Demolish Labour. This is the top priority.

2) Get rid of the Tories. With Labour gone/severely weakened, this is the time to vote for the Independents and remove the 'established' parties from power. (I'm assuming the Lib Dems will be the main opposition, though only by a small amount--- They shouldn't be too difficult to see off).

(NB I remember PurpleDogzzz posting a longer and more detailed argument on this topic, though I forget when and on which thread it was).

25 john from hendon

well you sounded sane at first..... yes the regulators have been toothless.

.....but then you started to blame governments from over 11 years ago for labours current woes.

.... If re-nationalising the utilities made sense what has stopped tony and gordon?

..... if regulators have only acted like paper tigers then shouldn't their bosses in the government have kicked the utiltities hard?

And herein lies the gross stupidity of Messrs Brown and Darling: "and express his confidence that Britain can make it through challenging economic times."
I mean to say, of course Britain will make it through. What's the alternative? Britain disappearing into thin air?

Nick,

Re 13, is this correct? Is our GB now running scared of the EU?

What is the truth about re 13?

"Undoubtedly we face a challenging period in the British economy - particularly given our position at the heart of the world's financial markets - and both the Chancellor and I understand the difficulties you face," he said. "But while never complacent about our economic prospects, I am also cautiously optimistic about the long-term resilience and underlying strengths of the British economy."


So I presume the pound will drop a few more cents today given our PM's sense of reality.

Fantasyland opens in Westminster .....

Gordon Brown has vowed to free Britain from the "dictatorship of oil" with billions of pounds invested in nuclear and renewable energy sources to counter the effects of soaring world oil prices.

re: 29

Britain as we know it will disappear if they have their way. I think they'd like to rename it Airstrip One...

Once again labour totally miss the point.

Don't spend tax payer's money subsidising bits and pieces that you think people should be spending their money on (loft insulation etc), just let people keep more of their own money in the first place and then let people decide what they want to spend their own money on.

If I want to buy loft insulation, I'll buy it, but if food is more important then I'd rather eat. Let the people decide, stop stealing all our money and then forcing us to beg for it back via reams of forms and weird voucher systems.

These people are beyond a joke.

Shrink the state. Stop telling us what to spend our money on. Let us keep our own money. You don't need to take our money and then give some of it back again; if you simply took less of our money away in the first place then we'd all be fine and the costs would shrink massively.

They're trying to force the whole population into being 100% dependent on government handouts by stealing all our money and then expecting us to be grateful when we have to beg for enough back to be able to eat. It's a classic Stalinist approach.

Don't let them! Revolt/rebel now!

re: 34

They're trying to force the whole population into being 100% dependent on government handouts by stealing all our money and then expecting us to be grateful when we have to beg for enough back to be able to eat. It's a classic Stalinist approach.

Exactly right. They are filth and must be stopped at any cost.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

The incompetence and mis-management by this government knows no bounds.Now i have no objection to extending energy efficiency measures or to eliminate the unfair energy tariffs suffered by the poorer elements of soceity.But why oh why has it taken all these years to get serious about these issues?
It does not require a genius to forsee that ,irrespective of the climate issues which we now rather belatedly realise, at some point our own oil and gas reserves would run down and we would be vulnerable to political/economic factors outwith our control.Whilst these factors will always impact upon all countries and we can never be completely immune we could with the adoption of a sustained energy efficiency strategy implemented in good time have limited the damage caused to both the consumer ,and in particular the lower income groups who are less able to cope with huge price rises, and industry.We would now not have a government making what is a knee jerk reaction rather than what should have been a fine tuning exercise.
Unfortunately action has come too late,the pain is more severe than it needed to be and the medicine consequently matches the severity of the pain.

#33 pttp

"Britain as we know it will disappear if they have their way".

Why are you trying to get me to support Labour? ;-)

So short term One off gimicks are not the answer?

0ne year Stamp Duty threshold increase
One year 2.7billion tax refund after the 10% problem
6 Month delayed Fuel Tax increase
One off £100 winter fuel payment for pensioners

The list goes on and on....

And this is the man who in his 97 budget stated that rampant house price inflation was the major cause of boom and bust and under his leadership he would do every think he could to keep house prices in line with inflation.

Well we are now suffering a classice house price boom and bust economic ressesion

If he really wanted to do someting about insulation he would take all 1m uninployed and the 500thousand on purminant sick leave due to stress. Train them to insall loft insulation, lag water pipes and tanks, and draft proof doors. Then send them out to EVERY house in the country to check and upgrade those cheap forms of insulation.

At a cost of well under £300 (I paid £400 inc vat, for a company to upgrade my 5bed house) per property it would be 5billion well spent.

Afterwards he could use them to fill caverty walls, then double glasing. But the lagging would be a very good start.

Wonderful speech given by Mr Brown last night to the Scotish CBI. Ahh, the relaunch, the verve, the uplifting tones, we are saved, not.

We are perfectly well placed to avoid the problems which the economies of the world will have to face with the global economic crash. Ah, yes I can imagine the politicians in 1928 saying exactly the same, I am reminded of a certain Herbert Hoover, well Brown is our Herbert.

I, and Alastair who will of course be the one responsible if I am wrong, will solve the problem, I have the solutions.

As Stock Markets around the world crash then of course action will be taken to stop the rot, only trouble is the money will be spent and then the problems reappear next year and there will be no more money to squander.

We are now being told that there is no constitutional reason why, if Brown goes, an election need follow, and the labour party can go on as before with a new leader. The party can go on.

Well that is absolutely right but does not this stink of a Banana Republic, where leaders come and go with the electorate going along with it. Well, that may be what has been allowed o happen in the past but it is nearly time to take to the streets. Brown out! Brown out!

He, Brown, is different, he took over as PM because of a agreement which he thought he had with Tony Blair. That is what is different about his coup. That is not the way to run our country, based on agreements. Eden was always thought to be the next in line after Churchill and he did take over, and what a disaster he was.

The same when MacMillan left, I always thought that R A Butler would take over, well 'they' knew something about him and he didn't take over, he wasn't offered the crown. Instead we had the dynamic Lord Home.

Brown is failing, we know it, he knows and the rest of the world knows it. He's finished and we shall not mourn his going. So, no matter how many relaunches he has he will fail.

May I humbly suggest that Gordon Brown go back to his academic roots and read Kant on Freedom and Equality in particular with reference to Imperium Paternale

'under such a paternal government, the subjects, as immature children who cannot distinguish what is truly useful or harmful to themselves, would be obliged to behave purely passively and to rely upon the judgement of the head of state as to how they ought to be happy, and upon his kindness in willing their happiness at all. Such a government is the greatest conceivable despotism'.

Now I know that Gordon Brown is not our head of state but he is the modern equivalent. He is a dspot and that is why he must go.

Why are you trying to get me to support Labour? ;-)

Here's my plan:

1) Abolish/Cut VAT on domestic fuel (electricity, gas, oil).

2) pay for it by canceling the London 2012 Olympics.

Outcomes:

1) All households pay substantially lower prices for heating.

2) Billions not wasted on a pointless junket.

#41

See Chuck Hogwash is still smoking something fairly strong.

No one in the right mind is going to vote labour ever again after the last eleven years of complete incompetence, lies and mismanagement.

Why on earth would you vote for the continuation of a ruinous regime without the slightest foresight to put in place policies for the country's future well being.

Every time Gordon Brown stnad up he delivers more ho air that the national grid. he's all what and no how. It's a labour trait through and through - go to every election making hundredsof worthy promises which you won't be able to keep but give you the moral high ground.

That game is over - eleven years and the public has had enough of Grinning Bambi Blair and Gurning Gordon; they know it's all lies and false hopes. Keynote speeches and work life balance initiatives. It's government by hot air and by deed poll. Every policy has a kite flown about it for a month before it's finalised just to make sure that some interest group or other isn't mildly offended by it.

It's weak and indecisve and has brought us to this poin without an energy policy, without any new power stations planned and with several about to be decommisioned. It's incompetence on the grandest of scales.

And anyone who votes for more of this is voting for us to move rapidly into the fourth division.

Nick,

a good blog but I am slightly confused by the actions of the government over the situation with regard to Northern Rock, a nationalised bank, based in the labour heartlands of the north-east.

My point is, why exactly am I as a taxpayer, still seeing their logo on the training top worn by their, now former, manager, Kevin Keegan.

Am I, through my taxes, paying some sort of sponsorship to a football club, when we have the elderly and impoverished living in fuel poverty. Is this not another reason why we are so annoyed at a so-called labour government being profligate with our money. What is their sense of priorities.

Gordon Brown must tell us that absolutely no public money is being paid to Newcastle United, the building society is in public ownership or don't they know!

Nick,

I wonder if you, or anybody else, could interpret for me why, when making a point, Gordon Brown seems to continually bring his hands together and touch his fingertips.

It looks like he is trying to create the image of a house or church, is this the subliminal message we are meant to get from a son of the Manse.

#6 CEH
I honestly believed Gordon Brown had used his bottom to speak out of for all these months, silly me.

# Bitingtheirankles
I propose the dis-honourable Charles_E_Hardwidge be the inaugural recipient of Outstanding Denial of the Truth award?

Please don't worry Charles, I know you'll squeal, nothing personal be assured, but of all the Labour supporters here, one or two of whom make reasonably good points, you are the most blinkered and a worthy recipient. Would you refute Gordon Brown and his cronies have blighted peoples lives in this country? Thought so!!

Government initiatives regarding energy-saving measures, particularly for houses occupied the lower wage earners, miss one vital point. Most of us live in older housing stock dating back to the pre-cavity wall era.

My house is a typical example. Built in1902, it has solid cold walls. I have 8 inches thick loft installation, double glazed windows and I have covered some internal walls with insulating plasterboard. Further more, most of my lamps are of the low wattage type.

Despite all this, my energy bills are now £1200 per year - 8% of my take-home pay - and due to rise even further. The solid walls account for a massive loss of heat and in winter they are very, very cold, even those I have insulated.

For us, extra money to help pay those bills, would be very welcome as there is little more I can do on energy efficiency front.

re: 37 oldnat

lol perhaps that wasn't best phraseology to use with all you Scots on the board hungry for revolution!

jonathancook@28

Only me! one of the 'Red flag wavers' or old troopers as you and pttpl put it.

So you can argue that you think labours economic success is down to Conservative "Long term strategy"(luck more like) pre 1997 and we can't refer back to the selling of the family silver leading to a profit motivated nationalisation of the countries infrastructure. Including Electricity generation. The only advantage to selling this was to bring in money and save it for a rainy day(Election Bribe). Short termism at its best.

It seems as we are in a minority, the non obsessive Labour haters that is, rather than the 'Red flag wavers' That we have our hands tied by the angry mob.

I thing Charles_E. does believe most of what he says so therefore isn't a Troll and he uses your own aggression against you. So if anything he is a Judo Troll. He is doing nothing wrong.

I can almost hear Malcolm Tucker [played by the scorchingly good Peter Capaldi] saying...

"Offering the voter the big prezzie, and then snatching it away just as their eyes are starting to light up - BASIC SCHOOLBOY ERROR Gordon !! This is politics from the Jim Bowen school of thinking - 'Let us have a look at what you would have won' - Shocking.."

Only with a lot more swearing and a Scottish accent..

Here's a thought - instead of getting Alistair Campbell on Newsnight as a talking head [yawn] yet again... Why not invite Mr Capaldi onto the show to deconstruct the week's big decisions in the political world in the character of Malcolm Tucker.

I must admit, the lies and namecalling in this blog are disappointing and upsetting, but wonderful practice for developing serenity and ample demonstration of the forces of procrastination holding the nation back. Keep it up, dear.

I enjoy the pathetic whingeing from the beleagered South. North of the Border we have vast fields of oil that will last well into the next century. You exploit it now but not for much longer We have cubic miles of accessible coal that we will shortly be using in an environmentally friendly way. Scotland also has Hydro electric power in abundance situated high above sea level and is exploiting wind and tidal power that you can only dream about. At the moment we are keeping our geothermal energy sources in reserve. Scientists tell us that the tectonic plate movement means that England is slowly sinking while Scotland is slowly rising: Wonderful news! We are currently governing your country into the ground and enjoying every minute of it. You deserve Nick Robinson, the most negative and depressing political reporter on the planet to make you even more miserable. We are chuckling our way to Independence and your moaning is accelerating the process.

All we ever hear about, budget after budget, is how that 35bn deficit this year is 'investment in infrastructure'. 250bn so far plus whatever else is concealed in PFI. All for 'investment in infrastructure'.

Every other country in the world, when it overspends, has a budget deficit. We have a budget 'investment in infrastructure'. It's time for the dictionary to be up-dated.

And with all this 'investment in infrastructure' we have not one extra nuclear power plant. WE don't even have one started. We haven't even dug the hole. They haven't even applied for planning permission. Not one decent-sized hydro-electric or tidal project. Nothing. We have a few heavily subsidised windmills though that when the wind is blowing will just about light up Balamory.

With the result that in years to come our children will be sitting in cold-unheated classroom and our sick lying in cold, unheated hospitals. Because the 'investment in infrastructure', if it was needed at all, was totally misdirected.

We squandered all that money knocking down perfectly functioning hospitals and schools that just needed a bit more insulation and some new windows and replaced them with 200bn quids worth of glass and steel. Just so that Labour would have something concrete (or glass and steel) to point at as their 'legacy'. Their legacy will unfortunately be far more enduring than a few over-priced monuments to squandering. It'll be 'The Blair/Brown Bust'. It'll be in economic text-books for the next hundred years.

On the up-side. With the recession coming that should put back the demand for power by a good five years anyway. Cameron will have to hit the ground running with that one though.

Easily the most incompetent government for 60 years. Perhaps that's what Darling was on about.

Nu-Labour have sown the seeds
Of destruction with self-serving deeds,
You reap what you sow
So get out Brown, go!
You're too weak to serve Britain's needs.

I wonder if you, or anybody else, could interpret for me why, when making a point, Gordon Brown seems to continually bring his hands together and touch his fingertips.

Because if they didn't we'd see that his hands shake like the Waco Kid in 'Blazing Saddles'.

That's why.

TAG post 4 I can assure you water isn't the problem in the UK we have had more than our fair share recently.

Does anyone know whether Sporting Index are running a spread bet on when Gordon goes?

Or what odds can I get on there being less than 150 Labout MPs after the next General Election?

I hae a lovely idea for the next Conservative party political broadcast. Perhaps they can just show slides of the house price falls and the rise in food prices detailed this morning and Alistair Darling saying the economy is up the creek.

All played under that lovely turneful ditty by D:Ream "Things can only get better".

And end with the strapline after eleven years of fiscal management by Gordon Brown it's time for a change.

re: 49

I thing Charles_E. does believe most of what he says so therefore isn't a Troll and he uses your own aggression against you. So if anything he is a Judo Troll. He is doing nothing wrong.

Lol your delusion is worse than I thought. Go and have a cup of tea and a lie down!

I enjoy the pathetic whingeing from the beleagered South. North of the Border we have vast fields of oil that will last well into the next century. You exploit it now but not for much longer We have cubic miles of accessible coal that we will shortly be using in an environmentally friendly way.....etc etc... We are chuckling our way to Independence and your moaning is accelerating the process.

Never quite got over that Mel Gibson video did you?

Another episode of bottle Brown unsurprisingly bottling it again.

And a possible leadership battle, who wants to lead a battle to run a party in this much chaos and poor reputation.

Get rid of the lot

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51 CEH

Now don't get sensitive, think of all the enjoyment we have reading your postings, politics is dull and if we cant laugh at our selves we might as well join the Labour party, and become dull , inward looking and out of touch.

52 Fifer

Looking at the situation yes if you cut loose and had your independence and we pulled out all our money I am afraid you would be bottom of the league in Europe. Just look at you football, there was a time when you north of the border supplied our teams with talent now just a dim and distant memory.

Charles_E_Hogwash @51 wrote:
"I must admit, the lies and namecalling in this blog are disappointing and upsetting, but wonderful practice for developing serenity and ample demonstration of the forces of procrastination holding the nation back."

Awww diddums!

You are obviously a glutton for punishment as a few weeks back you promised to go away.

#14 -

So - for Blair read Wilson?

No problem with that. Another guy who got out of the way just before the chickens came home to roost.

Nick, with a significant fall in crude oil prices from their peak a month or so ago, why are domestic oil and gas prices not falling also?

Ineffective regulation of the UK's energy cartels is one possibility. On what basis did the Regulator approve the extortionate increases over the Summer? Future costs, past costs, capex? Was that approval conditional on prices falling in line with materials costs? More transparency of the Regulator's decisions is essential if we are to understand why price increases are being approved and maintained in a market where raw material costs are actually falling.

Brown's attempts are futile - the corporations have their "regulated" price increases in the bag and HM Treasury is doing very nicely with its own revenue winfall as a direct result. The outcome will be to tell us all to wear thicker clothing and get used to it rather than examine the question of more accountable and transparent price regulation.

@58 - especially when you point out the fact that they lost the battle and the reason why Scotland is part of the union is because we had to bail them out once they'd bankrupted themselves trying to set up a trading colony in a marsh in Central America. They forget that bit as they deep fry the large chip on their shoulders.

CEH

"The secret weapon of America is what Stephen Fry commented on some months ago: Americans are taught confidence and communication at an early age. The secret weapon of Japan is Shinto, which promotes an interest in quality and consenus. Britain's historic middle-way has its wires crossed so there's a lot of yap but little do. But, a little calming down can help that doo-da flow."

Quite simplistic and very selective.

The USA became an economic power-house through unadulterated capitalism. (Too much so, in my view.) That requires communicatin and confidence - including the confidence to fail and start again.

During WWII, the US sat on the fence for a long time. There were plenty who thought the Axis would win (maybe should win) including JFK's father. British assets in the US were stripped, to help pay the way for survival and military support.

Post war, the US injected huge amounts of aid across Europe and into Japan.

Some made better use of the cash than others. We chose to plunge into massive nationalisation. You couldn't blame workers for wanting a better life. You could blame government for not ensuring that Trade Unions showed responsibility - and trying to create a more professional management / executive style on both State-owned or private companies.

With a rather better understanding of how an organisation could work, we would not have decimated the locally-owned car manufacturing or ship-building industries.

Japan had massive US support for years. We can all take something from their focus on quality management, especially in manafacturing / industrial areas. BUT, they had massive problems with property bubble-bursting. Something Brown seemed to say in 1997 that he'd ensure wouldn't happen here. Not much success there, hey?

It disturbs me that some of the UK energy supply companies are in foreign hands, as that dilutes their concern for local people.

But government could have develped and legislated for a different, socially aware, approach for any business to operate in the UK. Don't see much sign of that over the last decade - just thousands of pages of new laws, regulations, EU edicts that strangle businesses and add to their cost-bases.

Like or dislike the privatised companies? Doesn't matter. Don't forget that if Maggie hadn't sold off BT, there would not have been any competition in the telecoms space. Because there was, Brown could auction off bandwidth for GBP 20BIL. Now that was a genuine windfall! (All that loot simply disappeared into a general Treasury pot. After the UK experience, European countries took a less aggressive stance. So they didn't strip out the very money that companies needed to invest in R and D and building infrastructure...)

For me, the main problem of the Brown/Balls partnership (with Blair's connivance or lack of understanding) was their ability to devise "cunning plans" to raise tax. With minimal experience of ensuring that OUR money was well managed during the spending phase.

Oh well.

Things have certainly changed, however.

Remember Brown's refusal to wear a penguin suit when attending Mansion House functions. Pretty infantile way of saying he wasn't part of the establishment.
Now at least he has the grace to dress in accordance with custom.

Just rather surprised that he didn't wear a kilt, to reaffirm his empathy with the people who will probably cause his downfall...

T A Griffin (TAG) @45,

I tried to answer you using a medical term (that also explained the label of "pyschologically flawed"). But this has been 'referred to the moderators' by the powers that be...

Just look in a dictionary just a few word after 'asparagus'.

#52 FiferEck

Pardon, but your Anglophobia is showing! I am a Scot, always warmly welcomed in England and without any of the animosity or bitterness too often shown by my countrymen!

Your post reminds me of a Brazilian pal, who related this story that Brasileiros would tell against themselves.

And whilst God was creating the earth, it became Brazil's turn. He filled the country with lush rain forests, mighty rivers, and filled the ground with huge mineral deposits. Then He arranged adjoinment of a sparkling ocean, also filled with bountiful resources. As a final touch, He placed Brazil under sunny, ble sky.

The Angel Gabriel turned to the Lord and said, "God, is it right to give one country so very much?" And God smiled, and said, "Just wait until you see the people I'm going to put there...."!

Nuff said?

58: Remember we didn't make the video. We inspired it

61: Check the international team ratings and be very afraid!!

I saw something recently which said that a lot of politics is a game of bluff.

It probably is.

People's aspirations, in terms of their general standard of living, are very high in these developed countries and politicians often struggle to meet those expectations.

I'm not saying we, the English public, should go easy on them, after all they did volunteer to do the job, but they have to deliver or get the chop.

Politicians who boxing themselves in with dogma just annoy the people.

'Nudge'* is a much more sensible approach than coercion.

The English in particular hate being told what to do.

So I say, this particular set of politicians have largely bought all this upon themselves by crimping the freedoms of English people.

* No I have not read the book, it is obvious that that approach is more likely to be more effective.

#56

Water may not be the problem in the Uk but I like to think that my views can be applied globally. Water not a problem in the UK who cares about the rest of the planet?

#64

Oil is priced in dollars. Have you not understood as to exactly how far the pound has fallen against the dollar. Are you like an awful lot of people who continue to live in ignorance as to the effect a fall in sterling has on the price of goods.

Maybe you ought to consider those older people who retired to the Eurozone when they would have got about 16,000 Euro for £10,000 pension and who now get about 12,000 Euro. They will soon want to come back to good old blighty!

#67

So you think that Gordon is an Aspidistra, how weird is that.

Must be looking at the wrong dictionary.

#45 TAG

I must interpret carefully, as yesterday I was bad and had several postings pulled off.
I recall as a child, fiddling about with my fingers and chanting the rhyme, "Here's the church, and here's the people." The pointy part GB always does represents the church, the naughty part is "here the people". It involved waggling the middle fingers and my old nannie said it was "Rude"! Sexual connotations of a willie?
Other more prosaic possibility is that GB has bitten off all his nails and is now attacking his fingers.

Once again the government only seem to feel that it is families with children that are worthy of help. I mean those of us who are single, still paying off student debt whilst working full-time without any hand-outs or benefits and who are ineligible for tax-credits never struggle to survive in the ever-increasing costly society. Our tax is taken away and handed about without any regard for those who choose not to have kids and who can ill-afford themselves to heat their own, usually rented and shared, homes as the cost of living for a single person far outstrips that of the cost for two in all areas, from sharing bills and food to sharing accommodation.

#28 jonathan_cook

I do blame the Tories for selling off the monopoly utilities- as they actually did do it.

Labour came into power with the stipulation to the electorate that they would not change Tory policies, and to be fair, that is exactly what they did.

So who do you blame for selling of the utilities, if not the party that sold them off?

As to Re-Nationalisation: that raises different questions - if the consumers are getting a fair deal from the privatised monopolise; and regulation is seen to be working then there is no need to do it and there are far better things to do with tax revenues. However as this has apparently ceased to be the case and Regulation has manifestly failed then today re-nationalisation must be at least on the agenda. If it is put on the agenda it will clearly concentrate the minds of the utilities to ensure that they offer the best possible deal to consumers.

"if regulators have only acted like paper tigers then shouldn't their bosses in the government have kicked the utilities hard"... yes! (but see above)

What we now see clearly is that there is just not enough money left to go around.
Windfall taxes in the past were a disaster for pension funds. Ask anyone whose pension has not met with promised expectations. We aren't just talking private pensions but pensions overall who rely on dividends from these companies to fund them.
The biggest problem this government faces now is where will they get the money from to fund future pensions. Especially the over generous outdated index linked pensions still enjoyed by the public services including politicians.
This is a subject that the media have not yet caught up with but will be the major talking point in the very near future.
Who really wants to work 'til they drop?

Quite simplistic and very selective.

'Nudge'* is a much more sensible approach than coercion.

Let's be honest here, the government are secretly hoping thousands will die this winter, that will ease pensions, free up NHS beds, ease money on the NHS, free up houses to ease the housing crisis, Browns refusal to help the poor is basically the start gun to a human cull.

Labour MPs are going on the news channels stating a payment must be made to the poor yet as usual these gutless wonders will not threaten to bring Brown down, if Brown was serious about energy efficiency this winter then how many will actually receive the help before the cold starts to bite? not many.

what would be a better way to die, slowly by starvation and hypothermia or to be shot?

58: Remember we didn't make the video. We inspired it.

I think you'll find it was 'inspired' by the over-the-water-blind-hatred that 'inspires' so many Scottish (and Irish) ex-pats to blame the reason they fled their cold, wet country of birth on something other than having the mis-fortune to being born in a cold, wet, miserable country on somebody else. For the Scots and the Irish this happens to be the English. The same hatred that up until 10 Sept 2001 had second generation 'Irish Americans' collecting gun-money from the bars of Boston and New York.

Hence, Mel Gibson, his mind poisoned by his Irish-born mother directed or starred in Braveheart, Gallipoli, The Patriot. Are you seeing a theme here?

Blockbuster just called. They want their video back.

# 77

Gordon Brown, advised by those 'brilliant' people at the Treasury, decided that he could take what turned out to be some 5 billion pounds a year from pensions funds by withdrawing tax relief.

As I understand it, the Treasury theory was that companies would compensate, because the rate of Corporation tax was also reduced, by increasing the amount of dividends so that overall, pension funds would not see much difference to their income.

Unfortunately this theory demonstrates a horrifying lack of perception of what actually happens in the commercial world.

Company profits are volatile and the divis have not been increased a a rate that would make up the pension shortfall caused by the 'tax raid'.

As journalist William Rees-Mogg so memorably wrote 'Gordon Brown - the man who stole all our futures'.

virtualsilverlady

I agree with everything you said. The problem is, if I can't even get an interview for a job at 52, which I am well qualified to do, what chance have I got to work until I am well into my 70's - or over. My state pensionable age has already increased from 65 to 68 over the last year but my NI contributions haven't changed at all.

I, like you, do not want to work until I drop and there are millions of people out there who feel the same as us. However, it does beggar the question - if it is unlikely that we will receive a state pension when we retire, just what ARE we all paying for?

I do blame the Tories for selling off the monopoly utilities- as they actually did do it.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

#43

"No one in the right mind is going to vote labour ever again after the last eleven years of complete incompetence, lies and mismanagement."

I completely agree with you about CEH (wish I could filter him out). But I have to disagree about people voting Labour - the client state is very large, and insulated from economic reality by a thick layer of taxpayers' money. Also, many are motivated by brainless chip-on-shoulder class-hatred and/or polytechnic-Marxist claptrap. Just read their outpourings on HYS. They'd destroy this country rather than see a Tory government.

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80. At 12:30pm on 05 Sep 2008, U9461192 wrote:
58: Remember we didn't make the video. We inspired it.

I think you'll find it was 'inspired' by the over-the-water-blind-hatred that 'inspires' so many Scottish (and Irish) ex-pats to blame the reason they fled their cold, wet country of birth on something other than having the mis-fortune to being born in a cold, wet, miserable country on somebody else. For the Scots and the Irish this happens to be the English. The same hatred that up until 10 Sept 2001 had second generation 'Irish Americans' collecting gun-money from the bars of Boston and New York.

Hence, Mel Gibson, his mind poisoned by his Irish-born mother directed or starred in Braveheart, Gallipoli, The Patriot. Are you seeing a theme here?"

Yes but its about you. Perhaps you need to get over your problem with Irish people?

They'd destroy this country rather than see a Tory government.

Looks like they're going to get both. A destroyed country followed by a Tory government.

77 Virtualsilverlady

Horrible confession to make. In reply to your question, "Who wants to work till they drop"? I did, for several years. I come from a family where my grandfather worked until 86, my father until 88 and my mother until 73. I was raised to be a "donkey" in the modern idiom for somebody who doesn't expect handouts. I believe working keeps lots of people healthy and bright. Look at how politicians quickly crumble once out of their seats. If a person wants to retire, fair enough, but in a real democracy, the able and capable should be allowed to continue in employment.

Yes but its about you. Perhaps you need to get over your problem with Irish people?

Where did you manufacture that idea from?

84 secret skiver, the name says it all. the mistake you make is that you think that these comments on these blogs have any significance in the real world they are only one mans/womans opinion, some are amusing some are stupid and then some are incredibly spiteful we do get the odd one here and there that is meaningful even on rare occasion from a Tory. Mostly they are from elderly people who have nothing better to do and now and then from some young nutter who thinks that the world began the day he/she was born but for all that as crazy as it might seem I dont think there is anybody that would fit into the category of
" They'd destroy this country rather than see a Tory government."

Nu-Labour always evade the consequences of their crimes, misdeeds and negligent mistakes through lies and spin. The trouble is that they got drunk on the sense of invincibility it brought them and they came to rely on it too much, and over time it corroded the party's ideology and their thinking to an extent where they now think in vague woolly-headed abstractions all the time, and have no idea what they believe except that they must stay in power at any cost. Look at the political correctness obsession and the frighteningly large vocabulary of oily Labourspeak that has seeped into our language.

O Labour were very cunning--- controlling their followers through a corrupt and imposed ideology, with language trickery and their sinister vision of how society out to be structured... Now we are paying the price.

#83 U9461192

"You say that like it's (sold off the utilities) a bad thing."

Well, if having no control over profiteering in the utility companies if something that you see as a good thing then perhaps you do not see it as a problem. (that they were sold off)

I see having sold off natural monopolies to (now) mainly foreign owned multinational companies and thus having no (or very little) regulatory control over them as a 'bad' thing. If you do not then perhaps you will not see the party responsible for the policy (Tories) as being culpable, but please be prepared to explain that to the hypothermia victims this winter.

They (the Tories) did it (sold off the utilities) for dogmatic political reasons - now the elderly and poor must suffer and if you think that this situation if OK then that is a matter between you and your conscience.

82 shellingout , Always look on the bright side of life ,in the eighties you couldn't get a interview for a job when your were 32 and up until 97 you couldn't get a job at 22 because there were two million after the same job and if you did you were paid whatever they liked to pay you, God and you people complain, unbelievable.

@90

CEH
DHWilkinson
Eaton Rifle
Grand Atrichoke

You all fit that category!

The cap fits!

(wish I could filter him out)

@92

Its not the policy of selling them off that is at fault.

Its the regulation that is.

GB as C of E and subsequentally as PM has overall responsibility for those regulators and he failed to do his job.

Story of his political career, thank goodness it will be over by May 2010

84 secretskivver

did you see Michael Fabricant and his. Its Coffee mate joke? You know the one It can't be Coffee mate because its white. He got arrested in Colombia because he was carrying a jar of white powder. He said it was coffeemate instead of coffee whitener and hilarity ensued. Boris Jonson and Micheal Fabricant a couple of monty python style upper class twits and a couple of trendy vicars in the form of David Cameron and William Hague. What a terrific future you forsee.

Its not what they say its what they don't say that makes them so attractive to voters. isn't that right!

"Just read their outpourings on HYS." is this a joke? Have you ever read that site? It is full of out of touch Conservatives and BNP supporters about 10 times worse than this site and Pestons site put together and as you might know I and others suspect there is cheating going on with the recommends. so few people not in the right wing fanatic frame of mind can be bothered with it.

Now I predict you will say I'm paranoid. But the teachings of CEH have enlightened me from my former victim mentality. Now this is just a bit of fun. Not to be taken too seriously.

signed
a Marxist with a chip on my shoulder, dillusional, paranoid egotist with an inferiority complex, non entity.

ps Keep it up with the curtain twitching, daily mail reading, judgemental claptrap. Your chip appears to be on your right shoulder.

The Prime Minister said last night: " ...the trebling of oil prices and the credit crunch reflect deeper forces at work - the pressure on resources as four billion people enter the global economy; the rise of Asia as a manufacturing and services power, the restructuring of jobs, the scale, scope and speed of technological change and then the pressures on the living standards and expectations of communities and families as a result."

And all of this, apparently, happened in the last few months, since he doesn't seem to have noticed much of it before...Amazing, that, isn't it?

Please, please Mr Brown, recognise now that this job is beyond you and just go.

but please be prepared to explain that to the hypothermia victims this winter.

Will there be as many hypothermia victims as the 1970's when the mines used to go on strike every winter? The utilities were sold off to stop that kind of behaviour.

We were freezing every winter back then. High price of oil or low price of oil. They were like French air-traffic control. Wait till the Easter holidays then disrupt the whole of Europe.

We'd have been freezing every year without fail if we'd laet the status quo continue. That's the comparison you need to make. That's why the utilities were sold off. It does rankle a bit that profits on British subsiduaries will be used to subsidise French consumers but that's what happens when you join a club set up for the benefit of the French.

now the elderly and poor must suffer and if you think that this situation if OK then that is a matter between you and your conscience.

My conscience is clear. At least we have the choice of putting the heating on today. We didn't used to be given any choice. Arthur Scargill would get up one afternoon and declare a strike. And we'd come home in the cold and light our candles.

That's what drove the Tories to nationalise the utilities. So now who is to 'blame'?

my comment on the question of fuel poverty is that giving the winter fuel payment to every pensioner is wasteful in that not all of us need them. for example mp's get a very good pensionand £250 does not make that much difference and to a family on low income it would have much more of an impact. How about people paying 40% tax do not get the winter payment and the money is given to the low paid