Energy prices set to rise, again!

TonyT.
Tony, our local Sorting Office has recently shut. Postmen/women, have to drive the P.O. van on a 20 mile round trip to Spaldings Sorting Office to collect the Holbeach and surrounding areas mail. They then drive round to different locations where the mail is destined for, park up, get a two wheeled trolly out the van, and load the Mail and parcels onto the trolly.
If you have a parcel being delivered to your house, and your not in, then YOU have to travel to Spalding, giving YOU a 20 mile round trip to collect your parcel.
Now, going back 37 yrs, our Post arrived between 06.00. and 07.00. now, last week our Post was delivered at 16.30. It seems the Post now arrives anywhere between Mid day and 16.30.
Hmmm, think I will use “Top Gear” in future.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Post Offices closing is their own fault. They stopped selling Fishing Licenses, some stopped Car Tax, then TV licenses. Long queues and miserable staff. I get everything online now and buy stamps in Tesco’s. They forgot they were providing a service.

It’s the same as banks. My bank told me they don’t change money anymore. So, what exactly do they do?

I’d love to see a return to nationalised utilities, but we can never again be at the mercy of trade unions.

Public sector greed is to blame for privatisation and the destruction of our industries, NOT Thatcher.

And that is probably the biggest load of nonsense I have seen posted here (and that’s saying something).

An old friend was telling me they used to drive to the pub, get pissed and drive home down a country back lane that had a manual level crossing you operated yourself. This was all during the miners strike, anyway they had gone and got legless and were driving back between villages down this country single lane, as they got near the power station they realised there was a group of flying pickets that had turfed up along with about 15 van loads of police who had to move their vans to let them through while they tried to appear sober lol as they squeezed through this sea of Police..

I’d love to see a return to nationalised utilities, but we can never again be at the mercy of trade unions.

Public sector greed is to blame for privatisation and the destruction of our industries, NOT Thatcher.

TonyT.
Tony, our local Sorting Office has recently shut. Postmen/women, have to drive the P.O. van on a 20 mile round trip to Spaldings Sorting Office to collect the Holbeach and surrounding areas mail. They then drive round to different locations where the mail is destined for, park up, get a two wheeled trolly out the van, and load the Mail and parcels onto the trolly.
If you have a parcel being delivered to your house, and your not in, then YOU have to travel to Spalding, giving YOU a 20 mile round trip to collect your parcel.
Now, going back 37 yrs, our Post arrived between 06.00. and 07.00. now, last week our Post was delivered at 16.30. It seems the Post now arrives anywhere between Mid day and 16.30.
Hmmm, think I will use “Top Gear” in future.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

the icing on this particular unpalateable cake is the huge increase in lorries going through the village.

Another pet hate, when I was a lad most freight went by rail, the containers being off loaded at hubs for onward shipment. For some stupid reason this ceased and it was all put on the road, with the rises in fuel prices and collapse of a viable road system to take the amount of traffic we have, stick the bloody lot back on the rail…

While we are in about Government interference, post offices and their demise, I used to renew my car tax at the local office to support it, but had to find my insurance, mot certificates etc and physically produce them at the office to renew it… On line it’s checked automatically, the same checks could just as easily be done at the post office online without having to go through the physical checks, if the government wanted to support them, they could easily allow them the same access. It sounds like they don’t want the post office involved so they simplify the online system at the post offices detriment.

Go buy yourself a chainsaw, there are plenty of trees on the Sandringham Estate:D

Jim.
Lincoln .7

I’m p***** off having just installed a wood burning stove. At the moment I can buy oak barrel staves at £25 for a pallet load but a new local biomass plant is likely to consume the lot and most of the local forestry produce too, pushing up the price of wood. So, not only do I get to pay more for wood, I get to pay a subsidy to keep the biomass plant viable and the icing on this particular unpalateable cake is the huge increase in lorries going through the village.

So, after spending a small fortune on installing the stove in the hope of ending my dependence on the energy companies they still have me by the short and curlies.

And do no forget the really key point. We as users subsidise the energy companies through our bills for building and maintaining the damn things because they do not generate enough income from the sale of the energy. This moronic government actually pays for energy which is not produced.

If anyone out there in Key land has one single persuasive argument for windmills I would love to hear it. I doubt there has ever been a less cost effective way of producing the energy we need.

And don’t forget wave power and the scientist that did trials, HMGov ridiculed it, said the figures didn’t add up and it didn’t work, later they admitted they got it wrong and he was right.

The only thing windmills reliably generate is income for the operators and landowners. Living in the flickering shadow of these white elephants, we pay a premium for ‘green’ energy, and a tiny portion of our own money is then filtered back in the form of community grants which are supposed to compensate for having our landscape destroyed.

I would suggest that if they are such a good idea and in the national interest, then there is a strong case for using compulsory purchase orders to secure sites rather than using consumers money to pay landowners for the use of what is generally low value land. It would be interesting to see how landowners would react to a compulsory purchase in order to erect a windfarm. Would they be as green about it as they are now and be altruistic or would they object to the landscape being destroyed?.

The reality is that privatisation is only a small part of the dire situation we find ourselves in now. I agree about the lack of investment but then where would have been with nationalised utilities. Hugely inefficiently run, soaking up billions of taxpayers money.

The truth is down to ridiculously high emmission reduction targets set under EU rules, and unattainable committments to one of the biggest white elephants on the planet – wind turbines. That shambles epitomises both the government’s and the opposition’s energy policy.

I would take issue with you on the inefficiency of nationalised utilities, the reason that most were sold was to hand over monopoly situations to the private sector and financiers, the guff we were fed at the time was that private investors would make the investments, would run the various utilities more efficiently and the general public would benefit from competition and see lower prices.

Now I may be ticking on a bit now, but none of that happened, in fact when investment was required so often the taxpayer picked up the bill just as before, the difference being that the milch cow didn’t see any of the benefits.

Agree totally ref: the useless windmills which are sprouting all over the place, that system can never give a guaranteed energy production, if the wind don’t blow, the sails don’t go, end of.

Well, assuming you are both right we would be in even more debt than we are now.:(

For all the likes of us Charlie, we may well be, Yknow, Statistics, manipulation, and lies.

Jim.
Lincoln .7

Perhaps the establishment of an autonomous Utilities department of government in public ownership and without union representation. With an administration comprising either civil servants or, people with a record of unblemished public or private service chosen for their recognition and acceptance of the special social value that is a feature of the provision of the utilities. All of whom are subject to a panel of ‘watchdogs’ in the shape of Ombudsmen.

John, there’s no way that you would ever be any good as a politician, you talk far too much common sense.

Neil.

Re 11

Andy

No one is perfect. Not you, not me; certainly not Margaret Thatcher. Her government made their mistakes much like Blair/Brown and the present lot.

I agree with most on this forum; the supply of energy, water and the disposal of sewage are far too important to be left to the not so tender mercies of unbridled capitalism in the form of private ownership.

Unfortunately, if they are in public ownership, they are also much too important to be left to the opportunism of the unions. Without consideration for the consumer, both systems see the utilities as a means of either making lots of money or displaying political muscle and ensuring jobs for the boys.

The answer? I know not. Perhaps the establishment of an autonomous Utilities department of government in public ownership and without union representation. With an administration comprising either civil servants or, people with a record of unblemished public or private service chosen for their recognition and acceptance of the special social value that is a feature of the provision of the utilities. All of whom are subject to a panel of ‘watchdogs’ in the shape of Ombudsmen.

Re 11

Andy

No one is perfect. Not you, not me; certainly not Margaret Thatcher. Her government made their mistakes much like Blair/Brown and the present lot.

I agree with most on this forum; the supply of energy, water and the disposal of sewage are far too important to be left to the not so tender mercies of unbridled capitalism in the form of private ownership.

Unfortunately, if they are in public ownership, they are also much too important to be left to the opportunism of the unions. Without consideration for the consumer, both systems see the utilities as a means of either making lots of money or displaying political muscle and ensuring jobs for the boys.

The answer? I know not. Perhaps the establishment of an autonomous Utilities department of government in public ownership and without union representation. With an administration comprising either civil servants or, people with a record of unblemished public or private service chosen for their recognition and acceptance of the special social value that is a feature of the provision of the utilities. All of whom are subject to a panel of ‘watchdogs’ in the shape of Ombudsmen.

Well, assuming you are both right we would be in even more debt than we are now.:(

trumper.
Gary, I couldn’t agree more, both you and I, having worked on the railway/s, possibly know what went on, in the inside than many.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

🙂 At last ,i am beginning to feel at home.All these years i seem to have been the only one saying that privatisation is not the way to go–working on the railway i can tell you that 1st hand BUT the last 2,3 generations never knew of Thatcher and her get rich quick ,cream off the best policies.
Along with selling off council houses ,mass immigration this country is in a BIG mess.

The whole shambles is due to the privatisation of the public utilities, Thatcher’s chickens coming home to roost.

The private companies were quite happy to use the existing facilities, but no chance of them renewing or new build without subsidies or price guarantees, plus of course right now we have the gross waste of money being pumped into the useless damn windmills, which are about as effective as a chocolate teapot when it comes to reliable energy production.

The reality is that privatisation is only a small part of the dire situation we find ourselves in now. I agree about the lack of investment but then where would have been with nationalised utilities. Hugely inefficiently run, soaking up billions of taxpayers money.

The truth is down to ridiculously high emmission reduction targets set under EU rules, and unattainable committments to one of the biggest white elephants on the planet – wind turbines. That shambles epitomises both the government’s and the opposition’s energy policy.