The Treasury should give back some of its windfall profits from energy taxes.

The biggest winner from sky high oil and gas prices is the government. Half the pump price you pay is duty and VAT. The VAT has surged as oil prices rose. If your petrol came from North Sea Oil the government has also taken another slug of tax from the oil producer, charged as a windfall profits tax at double the standard corporation tax.

 

Those who shout for a windfall profits tax on oil companies to give back to consumers should demand such a hand back from the government instead as they are ripping you off for driving and home heating with their taxes. BP made an overall loss of a colossal $20 bn in the first quarter. Yes the company made more on selling petrol but it had to write off its huge investment in Russia. In 2020 Ā thanks to lockdown the group also lost $20bn for the year as a whole. Labour did not suggest then giving them a subsidy or tax rebate to help them out.

I have tried before to get the oil companies to put the government take on the pump and show it is many times the oil companies profit. They did not want to do so. That is a pity as it leaves some motorists thinking the bulk of the high price is extra Ā profit when the bulk of the high price is a government tax rip off. No government is about to stop these taxes on petrol so they could at least give some of their windfall back to consumers as tax cutsĀ Ā on other taxes.

If the U.K. gets a reputation for still higher and erratic taxes it will put off investment and make it more difficult Ā to increase domestic supply. Surely the best answer to our struggles is more home output?

125 Comments

  1. Everhopeful
    May 7, 2022

    Yes the wholly unnecessary and devastatingly damaging covid response has to be paid for ā€¦.by us!

    1. Hope
      May 7, 2022

      Sweden figures are very good by comparison. The gutless fool in number 10 bottled it as usual costing generations a life time of debt.

      Again today inanimate phrase instead of blaming his party and those in ministerial office. People make decisions not inanimate bodies. JR, you have the power to remove Johnson and Sunak. Get on with it. I still some conservatism in your green crapery party.

      1. Everhopeful
        May 7, 2022

        +many

      2. glen cullen
        May 7, 2022

        +1

      3. APL
        May 7, 2022

        Hope: “I still some conservatism in your green crapery party.”

        Redwood might understand that a party needs to diferentiate itself from its competitors. We can get totalitarian policies from Labour, we can get incompetent and corrupt public finances from the Liberals. We can get the insane ‘green’ policies from the Green party.

        If Tories wanted any of those things, there is a party offering them. No Tory ever voted tory to get ‘Net Zero’, nor has Klaus Schwab ever stood for election, so given the choice, as far as I’m concerned, he can stuff his ‘Great Reset’ right where the sun don’t shine, too.

        I’m anything but a pacifist, but I don’t want the UK involved in the Ukraine conflict either! Sending billions of pounds worth of weapons to that country, with no oversight at all, is the most reckless thing the West has done since it funded ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

        1. Cheshire Girl
          May 8, 2022

          APL:

          I totally agree. We have done more than enough to fund the war in Ukraine. Every time Boris talks to President Zelensky, he promises millions more in aid – sometimes on a daily/weekly basis. The taxpayer, who funds this, is never, ever considered.
          I think people understood that the pandemic had cost us a lot of money, and had to be paid for, and the public had to tighten their belts. They also were willing to help Ukraine. However, this has all got out of hand, with no end in sight.
          Personally, I am no longer willing to vote for a government that puts everyone else first, and always tells the public it is ā€˜the right thing to doā€™. That may be their opinion;, but the taxpayers may be thinking differently.

          1. APL
            May 8, 2022

            On the second of March, there was a ‘debate’ on vaccine injury compensation program. There have been a significant number of people in the UK who have suffered adverse effects as a result of the recent Nationwide vaccination program.

            While Sir Christopher Chope was talking, there were approximated five members in the photograph of the government benches. And one of those, on the government front bench was on her phone!

            This is an issue that might reasonably be expected to be of concern to MPs as it may affect some of their constituents or relatives of their constituents.

            Contrast with the 9th of March, when the Chamber was stuffed to the gunnels to watch a foreign president and former commedian ( who’s campaign to run for office was paid for by a Ukranian oligarch ) address Parliament.

            Not a single seat was avaliable, the gallery was full, people were standing at the other end of the chamber because it was so full.

            We have no mutual defence treaty with Ukraine, and Ukraine is not a member of NATO, nor do any of the members of Parliament have any constituents in Ukraine. Unless they heeded Liz Truss’s exhortation to go and fight against Russia in Ukraine.

            Watching these two ‘sittings’, I have concluded that Parliament does not give two figs for the welfare of the people of this country.

    2. APL
      May 7, 2022

      Everhopeful: “Yes the wholly unnecessary and devastatingly damaging covid response has to be paid for”

      Why has Neil Ferguson still got a public funded job?

      Being wrong about COVID-19 wasn’t his first ‘rodeo’ of incompetence.

      But it illustrates the problem with the ‘public service’ it doesn’t matter how badly you lie, or are in error, how many people your policy kills, you get promoted. In the private sector you’d be arraigned on corporate manslaughter charges. In the public sector, you get a K.

      1. Everhopeful
        May 7, 2022

        +1000
        One can be wrong, wrong, wrong but knowing the right people and getting massive funding from them often means that convenient answers can be found!
        @snakeoilsalesmen šŸ

    3. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      Covid-19 herd immunity kicked in at 18 months just like the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918ā€¦nobody has been wearing masks for 3 months with no adverse affectsā€¦maybe that was another con ?

      1. Everhopeful
        May 7, 2022

        +many
        Absolutely.
        Without a single doubt.

    4. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 7, 2022

      “Unnecessary and devastatingly damaging”, says someone who votes Leave and Tory…

      šŸ˜†šŸ˜†šŸ˜†

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        May 7, 2022

        Nothing to do with unnecessary lockdown or unnecessary war in Ukraine then.

        Telling.

  2. Mark B
    May 7, 2022

    Good morning.

    Sir John, this is goes far deeper than you are willing to admit.

    We have, as LL would put it, “Spend and piss down the drain.” government. Massive waste due to incompetence, corruption, fraud and the in ability to control spending. To cover for this taxes must be raised, money printed, and interest rates raised. One area that is going to affect prices but has not been covered, is Red Diesel. The government has further restricted those who can use this. It does not affect me personally but, it will affect us all as various trades will have to pass on the increase in costs to the consumer. Another tax grab and another hit to the individual pocket.

    Again, Sir John these are government websites and is, IMO on topic so should be allowed.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-rebated-fuels-entitlement-from-1-april-2022/check-when-rebated-fuel-can-be-used

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/reform-of-red-diesel-entitlements/reform-of-red-diesel-and-other-rebated-fuels-entitlement

    1. Mark B
      May 7, 2022

      On the second link I would like to direct readers attention to, “Policy objective”.

      1. Hope
        May 7, 2022

        Farmers will pass on through food production, but greenies in govt do not want you to eat meat.

        Vallance says everyone should cut back meat. He should get stuffed. He clearly has no idea what he is talking about. He should be interested in scientific matters not politics. Like with Chinese flu we saw his dodgy figures which unravelled within a week but Johnson still let him and Witless lock us down- what for to save carbon emissions ! Sweden figures better than ours, their economy not hit like ours either!

        Why is vallance and others still in post after it was found govt acted unlawfully to move elderly from hospitals to care homes? People died because of this decision? Based on what evidence? Common sense showed it to be utterly stupid. Why are these people not investigated for corporate manslaughter? Why has some of these on SAGE copied into Fauci’s emails not been investigated?

      2. Christine
        May 7, 2022

        It says that red diesel used in the construction and infrastructure building sectors should use less fuel. Why doesn’t the Government help with this by reducing the need for more housing caused by their mass immigration policies?

        Reading this policy proves to me this Government is truly insane and works for the WEF, not the British people.

        1. glen cullen
          May 7, 2022

          Supposedly the manufacture of concrete is 8% of global co2ā€¦and yet we keep building housesā€¦..but then again the refugees and illegal immigrants need them

        2. Mark
          May 7, 2022

          I’m sure those sectors try to only use the fuel they need. If the government is pretending you can make an omelette without breaking eggs, or build new housing without using bulldozers and earth movers and cranes they are simply living in a land of make believe. What they fail to mention is that building is now a dominant source of particulates, with private cars being a minor contributor.

      3. Lifelogic
        May 7, 2022

        The real policy objective is just to raise even more tax for them to waste. But of course they lie & dress it up as if they are trying to save the World!

    2. Sharon
      May 7, 2022

      Mark B

      Just read those two links. The authors of the policies; theyā€™re all mad!

    3. acorn
      May 7, 2022

      There is no such thing as ā€œSpend and piss down the drain.ā€. Every Pound the government’s Treasury spends, ends up being spent, eventually, into the non-government private sector. Public sector employees spend their income in the private sector; they will save a proportion of that income. The more public sector employees Redwoodians do away with, means less income for the private sector. There are multiple ways the Treasury injects spending power into the private sector economy. Can I suggest that Redwoodian, small government demanding private sector businesses, stop serving public sector employees; and see how you get on.

      1. Original Richard
        May 7, 2022

        acorn : ā€œThe more public sector employees Redwoodians do away with, means less income for the private sector.ā€

        So the private sector will continue to increase its income up until everyone works for public sector?

        This reminds me of an economist on the BBCā€™s Daily Politics a few years ago who said that so many people worked for the NHS that it was self-financing ā€“ their taxes alone paid for the NHS.

      2. Mark B
        May 8, 2022

        acorn

        If I spend my money wisely I will have something to show for it and may have some left over if I am careful. This is because I know I only have a certain amount and need to BUDGET. Government does not work like that. Well not for a very long time at least. It spends money knowing that, if it does not spend the full amount (witness Overseas Aid) then it is likely that it will have less to spend next year. So it spends it all the same. The other side is that they overspend and, because a project is too politically sensitive (HS2) then they will just keep throwing money at it.

        I have mentioned this before. There is only one time I can remember when a Minister and his department spent less and returned money back to the Treasury. Have a guess as to who that was ? Hint – You won’t have to look far šŸ˜‰

    4. Lifelogic
      May 7, 2022

      +1

  3. DOM
    May 7, 2022

    Correct.

    We need more politicians to expose the parasitism of the now British Socialist State that now exists for its own benefit and those who work within it and enjoy its considerable and secure privileges. Meanwhile, the private sector is again portrayed as exploiting and vampirish profiteers by Neo-Marxist gangsters.

    Without the wealth creating private sector the UK sinks into the decrepit public sector abyss of waste, lethargy and dependency which of course is how Labour and the Marxist thugs would like events to be.

    Windfall taxes are an act of Socialist propaganda seeking to portray the private sector as exploiting profiteers. Well, I suspect most on here know who the real profiteers and abusers of events are and it ain’t BP, Shell, Tesco, Aldi etc etc

    1. turboterrier
      May 7, 2022

      DOM
      Exactly. Pharmaceutical companies spring to mind. Some system of taxing the shareholders instead of the company maybe?

    2. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      We need to ask why these robinhood taxes on business where even established….we need to question every tax.
      Imagine a world without corporation taxā€¦.less HMRC staff, less fraud, less creative accounting, more business investment, more profits (rather then hiding them), higher return to employees, more growthā€¦more spend

    3. Everhopeful
      May 7, 2022

      +many
      Spot on!

    4. a-tracy
      May 7, 2022

      You can tell a lot of public sector workers are in taxpayer guaranteed pensions and donā€™t rely on the stock market, they donā€™t have to save so much in share ISAs and private pension schemes because their public sector works pension is world beating and just unachievable in the private sector. So these people suggest to tax people more who have them (whilst protecting their own nests), then they want to strip profits off businesses that pay dividends into these pensions and savings schemes. THE REST OF US IN THE REAL WORLD DONā€™T GET GUARANTEED FINAL SALARY PENSIONS FOR LIFE WITH SPOUSAL TRANSFER it was decided they were unaffordable 3 decades ago. So we have to have savings and pathetic pension savings vehicles, attack your own pensions most of you donā€™t even have a fund, lets put everyone on the same pension schemes, nest for all, they can even get their 25% employer top up as long as they know thatā€™s how much it is on top of their earnings, plus they donā€™t get the guarantees from future tax payers lets see how safe they feel then and whether they still want to bash dividend paying companies and profit makers.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 8, 2022

        Private sector pensions over the Channel are still largely defined-benefit.

        Those countries don’t seem to have “decided” that they are “unaffordable” do they?

        Why do you so meekly and tamely accept the utter twaddle that you are told by vested interest and its political puppets here?

        1. a-tracy
          May 9, 2022

          France is having real serious problems with its pensions and retirement ages, they’ve not addressed them, and it is going to blow up in their faces. You choose to meekly and tamely believe what you want but I think you believe in twaddle. I know engineering firms whose pension debts are bigger than the companies are worth, again people choose to look the other way.

          How do you make a defined benefit pension pot big enough to pay out the final salary commitments do you think, especially in the private sector when the pot is taxed? The employer needs to pay at least 25% on top of the employer’s National Insurance and the employee needs to put in 10% on top of their national insurance contribution. And that is to retire at 66.

  4. Nigl
    May 7, 2022

    The Treasury etc. Stop blaming them. Itā€™s more fundamental than that. Anyone in business knows that they are driven by their vision and then mission statement.

    Your party has neither. You did have but then a woeful leader with zero values/honesty trashed them.

    Start at the top and everything will trickle down.

    Incidentally congratulations to Boris/Truss etc. The EU has almost won with a United Ireland ever closer. You must be very proud.

    1. Peter Wood
      May 7, 2022

      I also think that is the plan, to return Northern Ireland to the Republic. Judged by the inaction to defend NI from the protocol and gibberish from the NI secretary of state, a referendum cannot be far off. Probably about time.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        May 7, 2022

        The IRA would have had a unified Ireland had they behaved more like Gandhi, Jesus or Mandela instead of like gangsters.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          May 8, 2022

          Can I interest you in this bridge I have to sell?

    2. Mitchel
      May 7, 2022

      And Boris is already slipping in the Churchill karaoke stakes:former President G W Bush has this week described Zelensky as the “Churchill of our time.”

      (Even though he is actually more King Zog of Albania-like).

      1. Bill B.
        May 7, 2022

        Mitchel: Boris may be trying to act like a statesman, but Zelensky is far better at it. That’s not surprising – he was after all trained as a professional actor.

  5. Ian Wragg
    May 7, 2022

    U thought the government had made it illegal to show the tax component in fuel at the pumps.
    Please correct me if I’m wrong. After all it’s private business running forecourts so they would be happy to oblige.

    1. Ian Wragg
      May 7, 2022

      This rip off compensates for the loss of EV revenue. Expect it to rise in the future.

      1. Ian Wragg
        May 7, 2022

        Today wind supplying 0.83gw and gas and nuclear providing 85% of demand.
        Get a grip man.

        1. glen cullen
          May 7, 2022

          Its quite ridicules

        2. glen cullen
          May 7, 2022

          ā€¦.and something else ridicules, apparently due to the anticipated huge queues and waiting times at EV charging stations come 2030, the energy providers may introduce a booking system, with a premium booking (priority) service if you pay a little more

      2. Mark
        May 7, 2022

        I’d like to see EVs paying the full cost of providing them with charging facilities, instead of dumping it into the standing charges paid by the poorest who will never aspire to an EV.

  6. Lifelogic
    May 7, 2022

    Indeed. Doubtless we will get tax cuts and promises of tax cuts for tax to death Sunak just before the next election probably to be in May 2024. These to be withdrawn and reversed either by manifesto ratting Tories or by Labour/SNP/Libdim/Plaid/Greensā€¦

    1. Christine
      May 7, 2022

      Voting for the main political parties:

      “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

      The majority of British voters are truly insane.

      1. Shirley M
        May 7, 2022

        +1 Christine – the cartel of main parties should be broken up and discarded, or combined. They all sing from the same hymn sheet anyway (more often than not)!

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 8, 2022

        Yeah, well, they did vote Leave after all, eh?

  7. Sea_Warrior
    May 7, 2022

    BP’s divestment in Russia decision was made after it had been strong-armed by the useless BEIS. The first rule of sanctioning? Don’t inflict more damage to yourself than you do to your opponent. So now the big question is: who will benefit from BP’s divestment? Putin’s personal wealth fund or avaricious China?
    As for windfall taxes, the government should resist the siren calls, while encouraging investment in our onshore and offshore energy resources. Taxes? I’d look to reduce them.
    P.S. I didn’t spoil my ballot-paper on Thursday. I voted for a 75-year old, apolitical resident who had no great manifesto. He not only won with a SIZEABLE majority but his vote was more than the COMBINED total for the Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem candidates. He also canvassed in a natty sports-jacket rather than emulating his slobby, dressed-down, overweight opponents.

    1. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      Couldn’t agree more

  8. PeteB
    May 7, 2022

    Perhaps there should have been a windfall tax on the pharmaceutical company excess profits from vaccines, or from the PPE companies excess profits from supplying dodgy equipment? Who decides the oil companies are the bad guys?

    1. Alison
      May 7, 2022

      It’s sad that there is so little recognition that the R&D of the AstraZeneca covid vaccine was largely done by an Oxford Uni institution (building on previous work), with a large proportion of govt funding, while AstraZeneca manufactured and sold their covid vaccine at cost.

      1. Neil Sutherland
        May 8, 2022

        Shame they didn’t consider gain of E1 genetic function resulting from adenovirus co-infections causing deattenuation.

    2. Christine
      May 7, 2022

      The climate change zealots.

    3. Lifelogic
      May 7, 2022

      A windfall tax on vaccine companies? Perhaps needed to compensate for all too many people who have been often very seriously harmed by these vaccines. Figure now suggest the vaccines were not safe nor even very effective. Giving them to the young and children who were at such little risk anyway and to people who had had covid already was surely mad, evil, innumerate or even criminal? Other than in a few special situations that is.

      1. R.Grange
        May 7, 2022

        Now there’s a good idea, LL. A normal profit margin in the drugs industry is about 20%, I’ve read. Suppose the government were to take half of that as a windfall tax. By December 2021 UK had ordered more than 650 million doses, according to the Institute for Government. PM Live says the cost per shot to the taxpayer was about Ā£22 in 2021. So, very roughly, if turnover was Ā£1,300 million, and the profit figure was Ā£260 million, the Treasury would then get Ā£130 million, on my 50% windfall tax suggestion. That might buy quite a few tanks for Ukraine, I expect. Johnson should definitely go for it.

    4. MFD
      May 7, 2022

      Well said that man! I support your statement 100%

    5. Pauline Baxter
      May 7, 2022

      PeteB Of course there should have been windfall taxes on pharmaceutical companies.
      But how could our wonderful P.M. do that?
      Surely those companies are carbon neutral.
      No the only ‘Approved Doctrine according to Carrie and Bojo’, states that all fossil fuels are BAD!

    6. No Longer Anonymous
      May 7, 2022

      +1

  9. alan jutson
    May 7, 2022

    Yes inflation is the Governments best friend, it automatically increases tax receipts, and lowers the the value of past borrowed money, for the rest of us who are either on a fixed income, some form of Benefits, or have to rely upon wage increases, it’s a nightmare.

  10. Peter Parsons
    May 7, 2022

    Fuel duty has been a flat rate of just under 60p/litre for years. Never mind half of the cost of a litre now being tax, when it was Ā£1.20/litre, 2/3rds of the price was tax.

  11. Philip P.
    May 7, 2022

    I gather from press reports that Johnson’s government has ‘given’ Ukraine Ā£500 million worth of aid to help with its war with Russia. We have not provided loan arrangements for this assistance, perhaps because much of the military hardware was old stuff we were going to have to junk anyway, so at least we have saved on disposal costs. But we are now going to have to spend a lot on replacing that military equipment, so I wonder if the government can really afford to give back windfall tax revenues gained from soaring energy prices. I agree it would be the right thing to do, but if the country is to be put on a war footing as Johnson apparently intends, it probably isn’t realistic.

    1. Mitchel
      May 7, 2022

      Markus Reisner,Austria’s top military strategist,yesterday:

      “Ukraine’s situation is much worse than is believed in the west.Putin can win the war….the west has made a series of miscalculations.”Can someone tell the UK MoD which seems to have transformed itself into the Ministry for Ukrainian Fairy Tales?

      Remember the French Economy Minister a few weeks ago vowing:”We will bring about the collapse of the Russian economy?Look at the Economist(never in it’s entire history a friend of Russia)this week :”Russia’s economy is back on it’s feet.”It is Europe that is collapsing.I read that patriotic Russians are supplementing the “z” symbol on their cars with the slogan “on to Berlin”!

      Why has Peter Hitchens,virtually the only UK mainstream journalist to question what is going on in Ukraine,been issued with a “D notice”-as he mentioned in his column in the MoS last Sunday-the first time in 40+ years of writing he has received one?

    2. Ed M
      May 7, 2022

      Ā£500 million is well spent compared to the Ā£30 billion wasted on the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, above all loss of life of our soldiers AND making things geo-politically worse (1. Gives more license to think that Pootin can march into wherever he wants 2. Iran now without a balance in the Middle East 3. Syria connected to Iraq War).
      I am NO passivist but I argued strongly against the wars in Afghan and Iraq – in particular before and leading up to the war – and got called a ‘Communist’ for doing so (or at least that was what was implied when I spoke with others about it). Really. Well who was it that turns out to be the True Tory now for opposing Blair’s daft wars. Me (this isn’t about ‘me’ but why we need to be careful about hasty judgments about Ukraine in my views). And if anyone was the ‘Communist’ it was those who supported Blair’s war.

      1. Ed M
        May 7, 2022

        Also, how dare all those who tried to slap me down for speaking out against the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. Beware of other Tories who try to do this. I’m happy to be challenged but not slapped down as some Tories try and do.

        1. Ed M
          May 7, 2022

          (Apologies for the rant! But I got a lot of hassle from people for opposing the Iraq and Afghan wars before they happened).

        2. Hat man
          May 8, 2022

          You were slapped down, Ed, for the same reason as Peter Hitchens has been given a D-notice: you opposed the Empire’s expansionist projects.

          1. Ed M
            May 8, 2022

            I hate socialism / WOKE all that sh*t. I want the UK to be strong. Strong Trade. Strong Culture. Happy People. But Afghan and Iraq Wars had nothing to do with that. It was about a bunch of men from Washington and London with egos too big to handle. On a power trip for their own amusement ultimately. Not that black and white. But something like. Drives me nuts (but not that nuts). Best

  12. Old Albion
    May 7, 2022

    But but Uncle Rishi gave us 5p of a litre of petrol (temporarily) Even if the nasty oil companies didn’t actually pass it on ………………………

    Oh and by the way; I’ve been calling for the removal of the EU tax known as VAT from our domestic energy bills since we left the EU.

    1. alan jutson
      May 7, 2022

      Old Albion

      The green supplement, and monthly fixed charge (which has doubled) is even worse, and adds to the increased cost of units used.

    2. Ian Wragg
      May 7, 2022

      They can’t remove VAT on domestic energy as the NIP wouldn’t allow it without Brussels permission.
      That would expose the sham that the NIP really is.

      1. glen cullen
        May 7, 2022

        Correct

    3. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      hear hear

  13. Dave Andrews
    May 7, 2022

    Can the UK government levy a tax on French state owned EDF? Isn’t that untouchable sovereign wealth?

    1. Mark
      May 7, 2022

      It can certainly tax EdF’s activities in the UK, but not elsewhere. They are probably not making a lot of money here, since energy retailing is loss making thanks to the OFGEM cap, and the nuclear plants they run are facing end of life shutdown which will lead to substantial decommissioning costs. When they are working the plants are making good money, but they may be losing through having hedged at lower prices, and then having to buy back hedges at high prices when the plants fail. On April 18th Sizewell B suffered a complete plant trip knocking all 1.2GW offline: that nearly caused a blackout with a sharp drop in grid frequency.

  14. MPC
    May 7, 2022

    Another excellent and succinct analysis. I listened carefully to an interview with Mr Johnson about energy costs yesterday lunchtime with a typically conventional journalist pushing him to agree a windfall tax. Johnsonā€™s response was to call for energy producers to invest more in green energy, his only specific reference being hydrogen! If I were a shareholder in BP or Sheā€™ll thatā€™s the last thing Iā€™d want the executive team to prioritise. Hydrogen research belongs in universities. Johnson should go to Birmingham university where theyā€™ve had a hydrogen powered barge on the canal for 20 years and the boffins there are very proud of it. But itā€™s a million miles from being a pioneer for any sort of commercial uptake of hydrogen powered transport, or for domestic or industrial energy use at scale. All this confirms that Johnson and co donā€™t understand what they are talking about and, even more depressingly, have no interest in learning to talk any sense on energy.

    1. Mark
      May 7, 2022

      Shell has done some research on making hydrogen by electrolysis at its Wesseling refinery – the REFHYNE project, where the project supplies about 1% of what the refinery uses. It was a useful learning exercise, and produced plenty of warnings about the impracticalities of making hydrogen from renewables surpluses for those prepared to read and understand the report.

  15. Bloke
    May 7, 2022

    If Govt spends the money it controls efficiently, folk probably donā€™t object to tax that is charged fairly. Instead the tax system is an immense jumble of complex rules with rebates, exemptions, exceptions and penalties.

    Ancient cave dwellers didnā€™t pay in this way, and he who invented, proposed or tried to enforce such a crazy system would have been eaten alive, tax free.

  16. Everhopeful
    May 7, 2022

    I donā€™t understand this.
    According to a left wing rag BP and Shell both made huge profits in the first 3 months of this year leading to calls for a ā€œwindfall taxā€ to be levied and passed on to the consumer.
    Oh but do the companies need the profits to offset what rotten covid did to them?
    After all their businesses are in the firing line?

    1. Mark
      May 7, 2022

      The ones who were truly sheltered through covid were renewables generators. Those on CFDs saw no dip in their incomes at all (other than due to failures of the wind), while those on ROCs were well protected, and are now making outrageous profits on the back of subsidies on top of sky high market prices. This chart shows what various technologies on ROCs have been averaging (bear in mind that gas is less than half the market price of electricity when thinking about profitability comparisons):

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ced07328c5aca75e27ef3f10266564a8c966bd6cbe7bbd483aa3e412b715daa8.png

      while this one shows that those on CFDs have just had a nice little inflation index boost, and there is no sign of those supposedly cheap wind farms taking up their CFDs to lower the average cost: they are raking in full market price while BEIS pleads for them to read “shall” for “may” in their contracts.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f55719e16bbf6b3e4c9736537fdcfb09628cc9685bc0b6a22acfd1dd9a0228fa.png

  17. Donna
    May 7, 2022

    As Sir John knows full well, the punitive Energy Taxes are part of the Governments PsyOps strategy (aka Nudge) to reduce the use of fossil fuels by pricing people off the road whilst maintaining their revenue stream. Sunak “generously” gave a 5p reduction in fuel duty knowing full well that increases in the cost of petrol/diesel meant he would recoup it, plus significantly more, through VAT.

    We were supposed to applaud his generosity when it was yet another blatant tax scam from this so-called Conservative Government which a fairly savvy child could see through. What I find astounding is that they think we’re so dim we can’t work it out and are stunned when they don’t get the reaction they expected.

    In a just world, political parties would be forced to change their name when it is so obviously a fraud against the electorate. In the UK we have a Labour Party, which no longer has any connection with the working class. The Liberal Democrats, which demonstrated as clearly as possible over the EU Referendum that there is nothing liberal or democratic about them. And a Conservative Party which conserves nothing and no longer even tries.

    I’m sorry the kicking the CONs got yesterday wasn’t more severe.

  18. Verbal Rebel
    May 7, 2022

    A way for the public to speak to the energy companies is in the little satisfaction box that pops up occasionally when using their website to input readings.
    I have used my box to say I don’t blame the energy co. but I do blame the government. I have urged their top bods to stand up for themselves.

  19. turboterrier
    May 7, 2022

    There has got to be some honest down to earth thinking in how are the party going to and what to change.
    Some of the policies are just one man and his wife’s dreams and like sheep the vast majority are blindly following with no idea of direction or consequences.

    1. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      The manifesto pledges went in the bin 2 years ago, about the same time he reneged on his promise to never place a border down the Irish Sea and started his climate crusade with Carrie

  20. roger w carradice
    May 7, 2022

    Sir John
    I sometimes wonder if the government would be happy to see Northern Ireland join the Republic.
    Roger

    1. Shirley M
      May 7, 2022

      Could well be!

      Boris finds it very difficult to refuse the EU anything, be it additional fishing licences and allowing EU supertrawlers in protected areas, paying them for the privilege of taking their unwanted illegals, taking on the cost and responsibility of customs checks for the benefit of Ireland/EU, assisting with defence, and adherence to EU rules and probably much more besides.

    2. Sea_Warrior
      May 7, 2022

      The prospect of that would, I think, lead to a re-commencement of ‘The Troubles’.

    3. The Prangwizard
      May 7, 2022

      Exactly. Boris would love it to take place. He has betrayed NI and lied to NI mps dozens of times claiming he will protect the sovereignty of the UK. I’m sure traitorous Boris has absolutely the opposite desire and is laying the groundwork.

  21. Alison
    May 7, 2022

    A great example of a government which imposes higher and erratic taxes and of the consequences is Scotland. Virtually no large-scale investment by non-Scottish entities and an economy dominated by the public sector. Sclerotic.

  22. Ed M
    May 7, 2022

    CHESS

    What is UK government doing to promote chess amongst teenagers? The benefits are HUGE, including sharpening intelligence in general (memory, focus, planning, creativity, improvements in emotional and psychological-well being etc .. All the things we need for the leaders in the future in business / entrepreneurship, science / engineering / medicine, politics / the arts / education etc .. but for people in general. The benefits of some investment would reap important rewards.

    CODING (as in software)

    (Chess and Coding and High Tech all interlinked)

    Also what is the government doing to promote coding amongst teenagers and the young? Coding is closely associated with High Tech industry. A 15 year-old kid who is able to code could set up a business for Ā£500 and in 10 years time that company could be worth a Ā£500 million.

    1. Geoffrey Berg
      May 7, 2022

      I think Ed M is really exaggerating the benefits of playing Chess. The most essential thing being good at Chess requires is natural ability rather than memory, planning etc.,. I used to play Chess when I was a teenager and I played some club Chess but I gave it up(except the odd bit of woodpushing when on holiday) as I found politics more interesting and meaningful.
      Anyhow I wouldn’t want Angela Eagle and Maria Eagle who were both leading British women’s Chess players when they were young to run our country.
      However I found the one amazing ability most Chess players have that makes them naturally acclimatised to politics is that they are able to lose games without them ever considering it to be through any real fault or inability on their part!

      1. Ed M
        May 7, 2022

        Hi. I don’t deny the likes of the Eagle sisters and academics and others play chess. But so do many people in business (in particular High Tech and Finance). For example, chess huge in the life of the billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel (really high chess rating). And Hedge Fund Manager, Patrick Wolff, who was a previous US Chess Champion. And many others.

  23. Enrico
    May 7, 2022

    The windfall tax from energy companies will never come back to the taxpayer as we are too busy looking after the illegal immigrants so all the profits would be swallowed up by them with the 4 star accommodation,weekly spending money etc etc. This government obviously wants them otherwise they could change the laws to stop human rights lawyers.

  24. BOF
    May 7, 2022

    As a retired petrol retailer, it always amazed me how we shouldered the blame for price rises but were never given credit for a price reduction. Few people understand how tight the margins are on road fuel and how much of their payment goes to VAT and duty, and how little is left to share.

    The sheer ignorance of those who call for a windfall tax on those companies that they then expect to drill new wells to supply oil and gas to get us out of the hole created by themselves with idiotic net zero policy. Government may not be doing that but they are threatening those companies should they not waste vast amounts on ‘green’ projejects. The Marxists are happy.

    1. graham1946
      May 7, 2022

      That would be obviously o.k. if the companies were investing this new unearned money in new wells etc. but they are not. Profits (quote ‘we have so much money we don’t know what to do with it’). They are planning buy backs of their own shares, high dividend payments which is in itself ok if it were not for the rip off pricing. Would you have the same opinion if the supermarkets suddenly decided to increase the price of their food by say 300 per cent? Regarding losses, the companies don’t actually have any – they may have short term losses but they claim back against tax for the following 5 years. Seems the ‘sheer ignorance’ is not all on my side.

      1. Mark
        May 7, 2022

        I think that the oil companies find it difficult when governments refuse to let them explore and drill and build export pipelines. They have little alternative but to return funds to shareholders. Remember, these are global operations. Investing in loss making enterprises like hydrogen would make little sense: they will do so if government agrees to subsidise it, but that is not in consumer interests.

        1. graham1946
          May 8, 2022

          Well, according to the government, (Boris, well known truth teller) the oil companies are going to use these profits to research and invest in ‘green’ alternatives. That is clearly a lie. They just cannot say, ‘they are our friends and we don’t really mind what they do. The public can freeze and starve for all we care so can keep paying whatever they charge’. Obviously – they would never get in again, but that is about the size of it. Why with windfall profits like this do they need us to subsidise anyway?

          1. Mark
            May 8, 2022

            Oil companies do not get subsidies. Check out the charts I posted earlier in the thread that show what subsidies have been paid out to wind, solar, tidal etc. – often a large multiple of the gas price.

  25. No Longer Anonymous
    May 7, 2022

    “Half the pump price you pay is tax…”

    Out of taxed income to get to work. Plus VAT on repairs out of taxed income to get to work. So I am being taxed to get to work before I even get to pay income tax.

    Worse.

    It’s not ‘half’ the pump price that I’m paying in tax. It’s 300% of the production price. And then the garage has to pay tax on the profit I give him after I’ve paid that 300% tax – perhaps I’m being pedantic and that’s already being priced in. But stop calling me a *motorist* – it’s not a hobby. My car is a pain in the arse and an effing liability but I have it to do my duties to family and country and no, Mr Johnson. It doesn’t go “Va-va-vrooooom !” like you think I want it to.

    Then all the tax we pay on getting to work (and for being at work) and having to shop out of town gets distributed among the private sector mates of politicians as well as the gold plated class of the public sector.

    1. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      Somebody has to pay for every nhs hospital, local government department, government departments, the police, schools, the fire service and the military to employ ā€˜Diversity Managersā€™ on Ā£100kā€¦.and ā€˜Climate Change Managersā€™ on Ā£100kā€¦and ā€˜Sustainability Managersā€™ on Ā£100kā€¦and now ā€˜Net-Zero Implementation Managersā€™ on Ā£100k

  26. Original Richard
    May 7, 2022

    To reduce our energy bills our civil service led government needs to stop the BEIS Net Zero Strategy designed to destroy the economy through the ruinously expensive, unilateral and technologically impossible task of cutting to zero our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions.

    Together with the help of their militant wings XR, JSO and IB we are heading for expensive intermittent renewable energy rationed by smart meters and the forced use of poorly performing and expensive evs and heat pumps.

    The newly issued security strategy is for us to be dependent on China for our wind turbines, solar panels and battery minerals, foreign, often hostile, states for our fossil fuel back up when the wind isnā€™t blowing and no new nuclear until 2043, 8 years after the planned date for the decarbonisation of our electricity.

    All for a global warming crisis that simply does not exist and I would recommend everyone to check the global warming data for themselves and not accept the BBCā€™s propaganda.

  27. Original Richard
    May 7, 2022

    Electricity consumers should note that some wind farms, who were expected to begin delivering electricity at the low bid prices trumpeted by the PM under their CfD contracts, are now delaying taking up these contracts in order to take advantage of the current high electricity prices caused by a shortage of gas supplies.

    The supply of electricity on some contracts can be delayed by up to 3 years and one Scottish offshore wind farm is expected to cost consumers over Ā£500m over 12 months, if electricity prices remain at current levels, by delaying its CfD contract.

    Another fine mess from BEIS & Ofgem, the Laurel & Hardy of our energy strategy, or a deliberate plan?

    Shouldnā€™t these wind farms be subject to a windfall energy profits tax?

    1. Mark
      May 7, 2022

      I have also asked questions of the Low Carbon Contracts Company as to why they seem to feel it necessary to hold a large reserve against suppliers being able to make any payments under CFD obligations when there are payments in the other direction. In effect, they are hanging on to cash that should be refunded to suppliers, and in turn to their customers. Out of Ā£133m of net CFD payments by generators during Q4 last year, suppliers will have received just Ā£39m at the end of March. LCCC haven’t even made any announcement about the amounts to be repaid in respect of Q1 this year yet. The regulations around this probably need to be amended: they were originally set in 2014 and amended in 2017, and don’t really envisage anything like current circumstances.

  28. Peter
    May 7, 2022

    Sir John,

    Those in power are not listening to either the electorate or their own back benches,

  29. Ralph Corderoy
    May 7, 2022

    What about targeting the supermarkets instead? They may have a different outlook on informing the customer how much of their petrol bill is going to the Government.

  30. JoolsB
    May 7, 2022

    They could but they wonā€™t John. The two rich boys in charge of the nationā€™s purse strings in their taxpayer funded accommodation with heating bills and council tax thrown in havenā€™t got a clue what itā€™s like for those struggling along from day to day worrying about paying the bills. Plus they are socialists at heart as are most of the so called Conservative parliamentary party who have given us the highest taxes for over 70 years on top of a cost of living crisis rather than curb in their spending or reduce the size of the over bloated state. We had an out of touch Minister on the airwaves yesterday bragging how much the Government has done to help the worse off and by worse off he meant anyone who lives in a band a-d house like my millionaire neighbour. Meanwhile those of us on modest pensions are deemed rich and unworthy of help because we arenā€™t in band a-d.
    Johnson and Sunak have broken every manifesto pledge from raising taxes to not scrapping V.A.T. on fuel and certainly not controlling our borders. Johnson will also be responsible for the break up of the U.K. with his weakness and dithering over the NI protocol. This pathetic Government have squandered an 80 seat majority and failed to take advantage of all the wonderful Brexit opportunities available to us and what is most mind boggling and disgusting of all is all those deluded and clueless Tory MPs who are standing by him who think all this will blow over by the time of the next General Election. It wonā€™t. They are so out of touch with the electorate and are clueless as to why they have lost our vote which is not just about party-gate and the cost of living crisis but because they are anything but the Conservative Government Government we thought we were voting for in 2019. Johnson and his sycophants needs to be replaced immediately by actual Tories, rare I know amongst the current incumbents, who will start implementing some actual Tory policies immediately such as cutting taxes and cutting waste and the size of the state but it wont happen.
    Thanks to their inaction, we can all can look forward to a Labour/Lib Dum//SNP coalition in a couple of years God help us!

  31. formula57
    May 7, 2022

    Before any windfall tax, why should not BP receive Ā£20 billion in compensation from the Government for complying with the demand to divest itself of its Russian assets?

    As for “…a hand back from the government instead as they are ripping you off for driving and home heating with their taxes” – quite right, but that would require a government that is on our side and that we plainly do not have.

  32. acorn
    May 7, 2022

    North Sea revenue for 21/22 circa Ā£3 billion, Ā£0.5 billion for 20/21. PRT is mostly negative nowadays.

  33. The Prangwizard
    May 7, 2022

    That’s too difficult for Boris to understand, even if Rishi does, which I doubt as well.

  34. MFD
    May 7, 2022

    Sir John, you say no government is going to give up taxing Petrol or Diesel.
    So what happens if have total ev transport?

    1. Donna
      May 7, 2022

      Road pricing. Pay per mile with a premium for rush hour times.

  35. Pauline Baxter
    May 7, 2022

    You very frequently criticise your own party and your own government’s policies Sir John.
    Particularly the Chancellor’s tax policies. Quite right too.
    But nothing changes in response.
    Presumably it is the Party machine, plus the Civil Service that prevent any improvement.

    1. The Prangwizard
      May 7, 2022

      They know he his no danger to them. He will stay loyal no matter how extreme his party gets.

  36. Stred
    May 7, 2022

    The offshore wind farms are now making huge windfall profits following the huge increase in the price of gas. But the government has not even considered taxing these companies. Could this be because they are foreign ownef and the ministry has agreed not to tax them or can’t because of the offshore profit?

  37. DOM
    May 7, 2022

    Sinn Fein triumphs. A united Ireland is now a fait accompli. The UK IS FINISHED Well done Johnson and Biden

    1. glen cullen
      May 7, 2022

      I fear you maybe correct

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        May 8, 2022

        I don’t fear it at all. I’m sure the UK government has wanted to cede Ulster democratically for decades. The IRA behaved like violent shits and couldn’t just let handover happen peacefully as in much of the rest of empire (ours or others). Had they behaved more like Gandhi, Mandela or even Jesus …

        I don’t want our PM bigging it up in Ukraine so it may join the EU. Doing the Churchill moment he’s salivated for – playing nuclear poker with Putin – while he lets his own country be invaded by boatloads of men of military age and delivers Brino, Woke and Green-on-speed despite the 80 seat majority he was gifted.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          May 8, 2022

          What is wrong with wanting to be a Little Englander ???

          I don’t want to boss other people around. I don’t think I’m better than other people. I don’t want to tell other people how to live their lives.

          1. glen cullen
            May 8, 2022

            I’m happy to be a ‘little Englander’

    2. Donna
      May 7, 2022

      So now the so-called Conservative and Unionist Party conserves nothing and connives to break up the UK.

      I can’t decide if it is complete and utter uselessness or deliberate. Whichever it is, it’s perpetuating a fraud against the electorate.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 8, 2022

      Congratulations to SF and to all the other anti-reactionary NI parties on their magnificent result.

      It would appear that the people there quite like being in the SM and CU, wouldn’t it?

  38. agricola
    May 7, 2022

    UK government has just received its first tranche of dismissal of its high tax and mad green penalty burden it is inflicting on the UK electorate. An electorate that does not see Labour as a viable alternative, but uses abstension and the neutral / ineffective Lib/Dems as a gesture to impart their disquiet.

    The conservative and disunity party have also set the fire of irish nationalism by thinking they can talk their way around the NIP. They cannot and will reap the benefit should they fail to neutralise the NIP.

    For all the good things Boris has achieved he has dropped the ball in domestic politics, failing to realise that the personal finances of the individual citizen are not there to be raped for government gratification. By now he must have a realisation of the consequences of his policies

  39. eyes wide open
    May 7, 2022

    Another on You Tube a lot of people are watching.
    Awaken with JP.
    Latest is p*ss take of teacher indoctrination of children.

  40. Ed M
    May 7, 2022

    Conservatives who focus on how expensive technology is vis-a-vis laser defence against dangerous missiles and creating all our own energy / being self-sufficient (instead of being reliant on hydrocarbons from dodgy regimes abroad), don’t be so pessimistic. Look at how Elon Musk has brought down the cost of travel into space by a factor of x 10! And many other remarkable things. A lot of Tories out there have to catch up with science and what it is achieving and stop being trapped in this 1970’s / 1980’s Trumpian, gas-guzzling economy. We can have the best of both worlds (strong economy and be self-sufficient fuel-wise and relatively safe against hostile missile attacks etc) but we need more belief in science, courage——and the spirit of adventure of someone such as Elon Musk.

  41. Geoffrey Berg
    May 7, 2022

    John Redwood’s article today is excellent.
    Perhaps he could persuade more of his colleagues to point out to the public and to Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and even Mr.Sunak that as the Treasury is the main beneficiary of this energy prices windfall that they should give their windfall tax receipts back to the people.
    However the fanatics of the left(that is just about the whole left and most of the political centre) believe in tax like some medieval religious fanatics used to believe in self-flagellation. Never mind it is generally ‘tax and waste’, the very notion of tax (at least taxing others) on just about any pretext is just inherently virtuous for them.

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