british gas announced today that gas prices will rise by 33%, and electricity by 17%.

 

other energy suppliers are expected to follow suit.

 

this is going to impact greatly on inflation, and theres no promise of things ever getting better.

 

thoughts?

i thought the price of oil had fallen?

I just wear a thicker jumper or two to keep warm, I hope they compensate the elderly

c**ts the lot of them - I hope the f***ers at BP who announced they make a profit of £37M A DAY yesterday are happy.

I was just going to do a post along the lines "if you see Sid tell Margaret Thatcher thanks a lot for privatising British Gas".

 

But as British Gas is owned by Centrica plc which is one of the few utilities still British owned it defeats my object somewhat at having another cheap "It's all the Conservatives/Thatcher's fault".

 

Looks like a warmer jumper is needed come winter & thank goodness we cook with an electricity oven.

I agree - appauling, given how much profit is made. I doubt this'll dent into their greed any.

 

Thank God I've set to move back into halls for next year at Uni now

centrica have made £992 MILLION in the first 6 months of this year... so how tf do they justify this rise?

The government should introduce a "windfall tax" on the energy suppliers and give the proceeds to the elderly in the form of free gas and electricity bills in the winters

The gas suppliers are using this time of government crisis to push through rises like this when, at other less turbulent times, they'd be called to account for it immediately.

 

I read a quote from a Centrica spokesperson saying "they regretted announcing this at a time of economic hardship" - so why f***ing do it? ABSOLUTE GREED.

I was just going to do a post along the lines "if you see Sid tell Margaret Thatcher thanks a lot for privatising British Gas".

 

But as British Gas is owned by Centrica plc which is one of the few utilities still British owned it defeats my object somewhat at having another cheap "It's all the Conservatives/Thatcher's fault".

 

Why should that matter, it's still bloody PRIVATE at the end of the day... It doesn't in the least absolve Maggie of her sins of Privatising public utilities... If BG was still state controlled, it would be a NON-PROFIT organisation and would be heavily SUBSIDISED.... The Govt would soak up whatever rises in costs occurred, NOT the ordinary punter, and old folks probably wouldn't have to jump through quite as many bloody bureaucratic hoops to get their bills subsidised.... Bills in general would sure as HELL not be over a fukkin' GRAND a year if British Gas was still State controlled IMHO....

 

This is frankly outrageous, these fukkers are making enormous profits and bleeding ordinary people white.. Time for the Govt to have some guts and step in here (although I'm not exactly holding my breath seeing as how this Govt is so fukkin' GUTLESS)... Re-Nationalise Gas, Electric, Rail and Water... NOW!!!!!!!!!! <_< <_< <_<

it would be a NON-PROFIT organisation and would be heavily SUBSIDISED.... The Govt would soak up whatever rises in costs occurred, NOT the ordinary punter

 

Contradiction in terms there Scott

 

Who subsidises the government and pays for all its spending ? the taxpayer, you, me, everyone here so it is not going to be the government subsidising it would be the taxpayer with more than likely a sharp rise in income tax to pay for the absorbing of the nearly doubling in the price of wholesale gas this last year

 

The way the government would soak up the costs in wholesale gas would be by putting tax up so no one would be any better off

Edited July 31, 200816 yr by Tim Barnes

Contradiction in terms there Scott

 

Who subsidises the government and pays for all its spending ? the taxpayer, you, me, everyone here so it is not going to be the government subsidising it would be the taxpayer with more than likely a sharp rise in income tax to pay for the absorbing of the nearly doubling in the price of wholesale gas this last year

 

The way the government would soak up the costs in wholesale gas would be by putting tax up so no one would be any better off

 

Not at all, the taxes of ordinary folks AINT gonna go up by over a grand a year are they...? So what if a few rich b'astards have to pay a bit more to cover this, they can afford it... Also, the Govt can simply re-direct funds from elsewhere (hmmm, lemme see, maybe if we actually stopped paying for Corporate Oil Wars out in the Middle East, and brought our troops home, or stopped buying Nukes from the bloody Yanks that we don't really need, THAT might free up a fair bit of cash, what do you think....?). Sure, there may be rises, but the Govt would be less able to put up costs by anything that went over the rate of inflation, whatever rises occurred wouldn't be anything like the hikes that the Private companies are putting on....

 

You also seem to miss out on the whole concept of "non profit" as well mate.... The reason for these buggers hiking up the bills certainly has nothing to do with providing better services or better customer care.... It has EVERYTHING to do with paying out dividends to their bloody shareholders..... <_< State-controlled companies don't have shareholders to pay off.....

 

And regardless of anything, the facts are that if it were State-owned, it would still be OURS collectively, it would belong to the whole country, not controlled by a few City Suit fat-cat types....

 

Public Utilities and services should remain PUBLIC, I absolutely believe this.....

centrica have made £992 MILLION in the first 6 months of this year... so how tf do they justify this rise?

 

There IS no justification for it mate... It's pure Corporate greed..... And will this Govt do a damn thing about it...? Will they buggery, Gordon Broon will just keep on kissing their arses..... <_<

I read a quote from a Centrica spokesperson saying "they regretted announcing this at a time of economic hardship" - so why f***ing do it? ABSOLUTE GREED.

 

Yeah, you see mate, the "economic hardship" that these b/astards are talking about is the economic "hardship" of their fat-cat shareholders and board members.... Yeah, cos the Credit Crunch means that they cant afford to buy that third Porsche or Lamborghini this year or third Holiday Villa in the Seychelles, and they can only afford three Lobster dinners in a week instead of four or five.... Poor babies, how will they cope eh.....? :rolleyes:

I know people who are going to start considering burning other stuff if this gets out of hand.

 

Can anything actually be done about this though?

Can anything actually be done about this though?

 

Short of re-Nationalising the Utility companies, I dont really see what else can be done to curb the greed of these people....

 

Short of re-Nationalising the Utility companies, I dont really see what else can be done to curb the greed of these people....

 

but do that and youll get calls of the government ripping off customers... its a no win situation.

Jeeze, well I guess they haven't totally tried to take advantage of the American public at the moment. Gas prices have been going in the U.S. for the past week or two.

Not at all, the taxes of ordinary folks AINT gonna go up by over a grand a year are they...? So what if a few rich b'astards have to pay a bit more to cover this, they can afford it... Also, the Govt can simply re-direct funds from elsewhere (hmmm, lemme see, maybe if we actually stopped paying for Corporate Oil Wars out in the Middle East, and brought our troops home, or stopped buying Nukes from the bloody Yanks that we don't really need, THAT might free up a fair bit of cash, what do you think....?). Sure, there may be rises, but the Govt would be less able to put up costs by anything that went over the rate of inflation, whatever rises occurred wouldn't be anything like the hikes that the Private companies are putting on....

 

You also seem to miss out on the whole concept of "non profit" as well mate.... The reason for these buggers hiking up the bills certainly has nothing to do with providing better services or better customer care.... It has EVERYTHING to do with paying out dividends to their bloody shareholders..... <_< State-controlled companies don't have shareholders to pay off.....

 

And regardless of anything, the facts are that if it were State-owned, it would still be OURS collectively, it would belong to the whole country, not controlled by a few City Suit fat-cat types....

 

Public Utilities and services should remain PUBLIC, I absolutely believe this.....

 

Little to say, but ABSOLUTE TRUTH. Gas and electricity; as standard necessary supplies, should at the very least be heavily regulated. I'd be all in favour of at least a cap on the amount of profit these companies are allowed to keep. The surplus should either be re-invested in improving the technology and efficiency, paid as tax to the government (for redistribution to those who struggling to afford utilitie), or passed onto the public in the form of price drops.

 

Yeah, you see mate, the "economic hardship" that these b/astards are talking about is the economic "hardship" of their fat-cat shareholders and board members.... Yeah, cos the Credit Crunch means that they cant afford to buy that third Porsche or Lamborghini this year or third Holiday Villa in the Seychelles, and they can only afford three Lobster dinners in a week instead of four or five.... Poor babies, how will they cope eh.....? :rolleyes:

 

Oh I doubt the fat cats are suffering AT ALL let alone missing one lobster dinner.

Until a couple of months ago I worked for a sub-prime mortgage company; one of these nice responsible companies who has helped cause this mess. They were owned by a large, well-known US corporation.

 

A year ago, they were assuring us that our jobs were safe, and there would be a small Christmas bonus for all. What actually happened since was that roughly 400 people have been made redundant (over half of the workforce within the mortgage company I believe), and bonuses were cancelled.

Ignoring the fact that we'd all been lied to, that would be completely understandable; after all the company's not in a great position. But on the day that we were all told the no-bonus news, it was all over the financial media that the head of our parent corporation had been awarded a bonus of almost $50million, and the average bonus to the City yuppies was over £200k.

Believe me, the fat cats aren't the ones suffering, they're quite happy to pass it all on to the workfloor drones.

 

I know this may not be directly relevant to the utility companies, but I would honestly be surprised if this sort of scenario wasn't the case in the majority of large organisations. It's a symptom of the whole mess the economy is in right now. Sacrifices need to be made, but unfortunately certain groups are doing everything they can to avoid taking their share of the load.

The City boys protect themselves at the expense of all others; be it their own staff and customers.

 

With private organisations, PROFIT will always take priority over everything else, and this is why these utility companies need to be brought back into state control.

Edited August 2, 200816 yr by Shoat

but do that and youll get calls of the government ripping off customers... its a no win situation.

 

No, because then a cap would be put on bills, there would be a far more powerful system of regulation and control which would ensure that there would be no price rises over the rate of inflation (sure as HELL not 35 sodding per cent...), there would be NO PROFITS made out of it, the money raised from bills would be directly ploughed back into customer services, no shareholders, no fat-cat bosses taking huge bonuses for themselves, the State could redistribute money from elsewhere to soak up the rising energy costs.... All in all, a better system...