The Prime Minister announced the headlines of a solution for the energy crisis. She proposes removing green levies and capping domestic energy costs per unit of energy, with a matching scheme for business. Presumably taxpayers pay compensation to the energy companies for selling us energy below their costs.
I favour doing more by way of tax cuts on energy, adding an end to VAT on fuel and cancellation of the carbon tax to cut energy costs. The problem with price controls is they might put people off investing in more supply, deterred by lower and unpredictable Ā returns from intervention. They also blunt the role of price in lowering demand when there is scarcity. It is necessary Ā to help people on low income with bills, or better to help them get jobs with decent incomes.
The EU was looking at plans of its own to tackle their cost of living crisis. They have been seeking a mixture of windfall taxes, price controls and rationing. It appears they have fallen out over controlling gas prices, with some fearing that would lead to an earlier loss of Russian gas and rationing. They expect Putin to find other markets for his gas. The EU seems to think the answer to dear and scarce Russian gas is even more investment in wind turbines and hydrogen.
It is difficult to understand why they believe this.Without storage wind turbine power is erratic and lets you down all too often. Hydrogen made using renewable electricity is not yet a commercial proposition and will need a vast new distribution network. The Ā truth is this decade many people are relying on the natural gas boiler for heating and the petrol or diesel car and van for transport. All the time that remains true Europe needs to secure supplies of gas and oil.
The U.K. can do something about this reality as it has reserves to exploit.
September 15, 2022
Good morning.
To me a simpler solution would have been to increase the threshold in which personal tax is paid. Reduce or remove Employers National Insurance Contributions (another tax). And increase benefits in the form of one off payments. This would have the effect of increasing the amount of money people have to pay their bills (it is not just energy you know) but would still make people use less, thereby putting less pressure on the limited storage we have. The government seems to have pursued the same stupid policies that have got us into this mess. Madness !
Another load of short term, narrow minded and doomed to fail solutions to a long standing problem of MP’s and government refusing to think long term and strategically.
September 15, 2022
PS forget Hydrogen Sir John. research Hydrogen Peroxide ! H2O2
September 15, 2022
+many
Yesterday we had a couple of gas blokes do a job on our ancient and no doubt eventually doomed gas boiler.
They seemed to know all about therms per whatever and all that stuff and agreed with you that hydrogen is the way forward ( well or probably backwards but warm anyway).
They thought that all that yellow pipe installation was something to do with it too.
September 15, 2022
Sorryā¦you said hydrogen peroxide not hydrogen.
Anyway. I expect you are right and they were wrongā¦look at Hindenburg. Donāt fancy that in the driveway!
September 15, 2022
Hydrogen is a very inefficient storage of energy and dangerous to boot.
September 15, 2022
Would you sleep easy with a petrol tanker on the drive? They are both highlyflamma me but, kept correctly, perfectly safe.
September 15, 2022
I meant I would not want the Hindenburg disaster on my drive. Naturally enough.
September 15, 2022
@ Mike it is far easier to keep a tank of petrol or diesel safely than it is to compress and store liquid hydrogen & far cheaper too.
September 15, 2022
Yes, First, eliminate or at least reduce taxes, must be the FIRST Conservative principle.
Consider:
Price of gas before war = production cost + RoE – Tax
Price of gas after war = production cost + RoE + WAR PREMIUM + Tax
RoE is Return on Equity.
Who gets the cash benefit from the WAR PREMIUM ?
September 15, 2022
Erratum
+ Tax in first line of consider, NOT – tax
September 15, 2022
@Peter Woods; How does a reduction in taxes help those who pay no tax, should they simply freeze this winter, or perhaps go hungry?…
September 15, 2022
No-one escapes tax: it gets passed down to the poorest in many ways. In VAT, a thoroughly regressive EU tax, on their fuel bills in several forms, in the availability of jobs depending on the degree of NI and corporation tax, etc etc. The price and availability of everything, including rentable property, are affected by tax.
September 15, 2022
@rose; Many people pay very little in the way of discretionary taxes when hard-up, most of the staple foods are zero rated, younger children’s cloths are zero rated. Working age adults will either be gifted or make (official or otherwise) purchases of exempted second hand White and Brown goods etc, many pensioners already have all they need, but should they need replacements they will do as those younger do.
So a VAT reduction might make a good sound-bite but it offers little real help. Sure such a cut cut will help those buying a new car, mobile phone or 80″ TV though…
A drastic cut in council tax might help, there are many people who fall outside of the current system of CT rebates, but then there are people who already get 100% rebate who also need help. Yes both a VAT and CT rate cut will help but neither are anything like the full solution, so much so they would quickly be seen for what they are, smoke and mirrors but no trick.
“VAT, a thoroughly regressive EU tax, on their fuel bills”
Yes and who imposed VAT on domestic fuel, a Tory govt in 1994 trying to fund tax cuts so at least some would still vote for them come 1997, before that domestic energy was zero rated. You, like others, also forget the UK had purchase tax, on certain items well before VAT.
September 16, 2022
“most of the staple foods are zero rated”. Food in particular has rocketed in price, not least because of the cost of fuel involved in its production and transport. As the cost of fuel soars, so does the tax imposed on it. VAT, green levies, etc. Then there is the tax on employing people in the farming and food industry. And the tax on ever more expensive and scarce Co2 and fertiliser. Nothing escapes the indirect effects of taxation.
September 16, 2022
@rose; Yes fuel duties need to be lower, that’s a given, BUT it is not necessarily in the gift of the UK government where everything from raw materials to finished products are incurring higher transport cost before arriving in the UK.
September 15, 2022
They get Ā£400 cash help plus an energy cap worth on average Ā£1000.
Plus probably tax credits or housing benefits and child benefit if applicable.
Not a bad package of help for those earning less than Ā£12,500 per annum.
September 15, 2022
It is almost a disgrace that people only ‘earn’ a maximum of Ā£12.500 for a full working week.
September 16, 2022
@MT; Even more of a disgrace that such people often have to jump through multiple hoops to obtain the support Peter2 and others ‘think’ such people get auto-magically, when in fact many either do not know they could apply, give up trying to apply or never bother in the first place because the hassle of dealing with an autocratic system that has been designed to avoid paying benefits.
September 16, 2022
What an odd post Jerry.
Tell us how you work full time as an adult and earn less than Ā£12500
PS
Citizens Advice Is available for free to help people get the benefits they are entitled to.
And near me several community centres that offer free help.
September 16, 2022
@Peter2; “Tell us [../more trolling waffle/..]”
I have, multiple times, try actually reading my comments!
September 16, 2022
So no reply to my straightforward question Jerry.
As usual.
Run away, run away.
September 17, 2022
Jerry
Just to put you right.
National Minimum Wage from April 2022 is Ā£9.50 per hour
Multiply that by 37 hours per week times 52 weeks a year you get a total wage of Ā£18,278.
September 15, 2022
Vladimir Putin.
September 15, 2022
Petrol and hydrogen are two different animals.
September 15, 2022
Increasing the tax threshold won’t help those in low pay work, and personally, I believe they deserve far more help than those who don’t work at all as their travel costs will be massively increased along with everything else.
Yes, we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, but why destroy our economy and country in the process? The worst offenders won’t bankrupt themselves and they’ll survive better than the ones embracing the ‘religion’. Say bye bye to the future of the UK unless some sensible and radical changes are made. Businesses are already going under, thanks to UK politicians failing to ensure energy security.
September 15, 2022
@Shirley M, to reinforce in part your last paragraph, destroy the economy, then destroys the possibility of a future, that would then destroy the funding that is needed for a so-called greener future. You have to have a strong resilient economy simply to create a future of any description. – Hence the phrase āIts the economy stupidā – get that first right and you can have everything
September 15, 2022
Ian B – I am in full agreement, but fossil fuels are a finite resource, however we should NOT be abandoning fossil fuels until there is a viable alternative. By viable, I mean reliable on demand cheap energy!
September 16, 2022
@Shirley M, I am a bit late – But , the UK sits on top of another 250 years worth of coal alone. Forcing C02 scubber technolagy could be an answear
September 15, 2022
I agree with most of what you say, Shirley, but in your third line, who’s ‘we’? Does it include China and India? If it doesn’t, why do we ‘need to wean ourselves off fossile fuels’ when they don’t? What would that achieve? These are questions which have been asked over and over again, and cannot be dodged.
September 15, 2022
+1
September 15, 2022
@Shirley M; “travel costs will be massively increased along with everything else.”
Not just travel but transport costs generally, and the way to help is for govt to direct targeted support to the transport industry, not necessarily the end users directly, and certainly NOT via the blunt tool of employment related tax cuts, people receiving tax cuts/rebates who may not actual even use said transport! Does someone in (low) paid work who walks or cycles to work actually need help with transport costs. Likewise does a company whose products remain local need the same level of support as a company who has to ship their products many miles?
September 15, 2022
What on earth are you talking about? Of course raising the personal allowance will help those in low-paid work!! It helps EVERYONE in employment, but proportionately it helps the low paid the MOST. The personal allowance should be increased to AT LEAST Ā£20,000, and better still Ā£25K. This will help the blue-collar, Red Wall Tories and the JAMs – the ‘Just About Managing’ – who (unlike those who refuse to work) are trying to do the right thing but are suffering economically.
September 15, 2022
Totally agree X-Tory
September 15, 2022
@X-Tory; How does raising the personal tax allowance help those whose earnings do not reach the current limit, never mind your suggested levels. If such people are claiming Universal Credit then there might be additional help, but not all are on UC for what ever reason, many could well have been trying to “do the right thing” as some on the hard right keep urging people to do, people who until the energy crisis hit could JAM without help. What should those who earn less than the current PA do now, just so some can have a tax cut, give up work & claim UC?…
September 15, 2022
It encourages them to be able to be able to work a few more hours and receive 100% of their marginal earnings
It also encourages them to take promotion or better paid job.
You obviously have never been in this situation and your lack of empathy and understanding for those who are is palpable Jerry
September 15, 2022
If any unused excess personal allowance were convertible to cash payments at 20%, would that address the issue?
Combining NI & PAYE, as well with the increase in personal allowances would send the right signals to taking work.
We should also look to assess all income as a benefit in kind if it is untaxed. This might not actually be taxed but may act to restrict conversion of unused personal allowances. It seems a bit petty though when we have massive low wage or no wage tax funded immigration.
With engineered inflation allowing the leveraged to make hay. Lets not allow obscene bonuses followed by mega bailouts ‘again’!
September 15, 2022
God, you do talk rubbish. The minimum wage is Ā£9.50/hr. So working a standard 40 hours per week the minimum annual earnings are Ā£19,760 – well above the current personal allowance. This is why I believe this should be raised to Ā£20,000. Get it now???
September 16, 2022
@X-Tory; Indeed YOU do talk rubbish. š„
The self employed are not covered by the NMW, and those who are in PAYE employment might not work your standard 40 hours per week, yes there is tapering within the UC system but again not everyone will be claiming UC. Raising the PA will do nothing, it will not put one extra penny into the pockets of such people. This is why I believe the tax system is inappropriate as a solution to the energy price crisis.
Any solution needs to be universal, it needs to cover all bases, not just the standard pigeonhole you and others without thought keep chirping on about like demented parrots -to mix my metaphors. Get it now?
Don’t get me wrong, there may well also be a case to raise the PA, and indeed raise it substantially, but that’s a different debate.
September 16, 2022
Well said X Tory.
September 15, 2022
The personal allowance should be set at parity with the minimum wage.
This would prevent dodgy Chancellors from increasing minimum wage and thereby awarding themselves higher tax receipts; a bit like fiscal drag but I would call it fiscal forcing.
September 16, 2022
later you say 40 hours is the normal working week. Really?
September 15, 2022
Shirley, the government has helped to subsidise rail and bus fares for years. 3 Sept 2022
-Many Councils have also supported capped bus fares re Manchester, Wakefield etc. from this month from rate payers.
ā Government to provide up to Ā£60 million from January to March next year, to help bus operators to cap single adult fares at Ā£2 per journey.
-Find the discounts and concessions that are available in your area for travel to school sixth form or college through your local council website.
September 15, 2022
It will reduce income tax paid by Ā£200 per every Ā£1000 threshold raised. It also motivates low earners to work harder and be paid more without the deduction of income tax and NI.!
September 16, 2022
There are no workable alternatives to fossil fuels as yet. Wind and solar only produce about 2% of total human energy needs.
September 15, 2022
āThe problem with price controls is they might (no will) put people off investing in more supply, deterred by lower and unpredictable returns from intervention. They also blunt the role of price in lowering demand when there is scarcityā
āIt is necessary to help people on low income with bills, or better to help them get jobs with decent incomesā. Well if you employ people on wages around the minimum wage there is little incentive to paying them more as circa 90% is taken (of anything extra you give them) off them in tax, NI and their loss of benefits. Furthermore many of the costs of working such as travels costs, clothing, lunches are not tax deductable. So you just make the business less competitive relative to others. Then you go bust or have to sell out.
The government tax and benefit system, the vast over taxation and OTT employment rules is the cause of low wages. Furthermore they push up the minimum wage but companies then have less money to maintain differentials. As usual the government are the problem as they are with energy with their net zero religion and their moronic market rigging. But the daft Truss retained the dope Alok Sharma and loves net zero it seems.
September 15, 2022
A US publication a week or so ago pointed out that the UK and US wholesale cost of gas was broadly similar. Yet the UK consumer pays nearly double what the US consumer does ā the difference was simply tax, tax and more tax.
September 15, 2022
You should understand that in the US gas is short for gasoline, I.e. petrol.
What you think of as gas they call natural gas, where the prices have been very different, staying below $10/MMBtu at Henry Hub, while in the UK and on the Continent prices peaked at over $100/MMBtu on a wholesale basis.
September 15, 2022
I wasn’t confusing the issue, I was using UK English on a UK web site. The US uses Btu’s the UK uses therms
September 15, 2022
and net zero and government energy market rigging.
September 15, 2022
@LL; “Furthermore many of the costs of working such as travels costs, clothing, lunches are not tax deductable. So you just make the business less competitive relative to others.”
How does employees having to buy their own food, and everyday clothing [1], make a company less competitive?
[1] PPE is tax deductible, and zero rated for VAT in some cases.
September 15, 2022
Obviously the point is that the amount the worker actually gains from wages after tax, ni, costs of travel to work, lunches, child care etc. can be very low so you have to pay them more to get them to work (which might well mean the business is no longer profitable to do at all) is this not obvious?
Yes I do know specialist clothing can be claimed for.
September 15, 2022
@LL; All you do is make as very good case for shareholders/directors having to take less out of the companies themselves that way reinvestment can be the same and better wages can be paid to those who actually earn the profits! Yes I know not all companies fit the description or could do as I suggest but if you can use broad brushes so can others! š
September 16, 2022
Jerry – If you can sell a product for x and it cost y to make it in wages, energy, overheads, materials, sales costsā¦ then unless x is rather less then y you obviously have to stop making it and lay the workers off. Unless you and your investors want to run a loss making charity and slowly go bust that is but not many do.
September 16, 2022
@LL; Care to explain how companies such as the Co-op and John Lewis survive, how companies such as the original Cadbury’s became so successful, indeed how William Morris (Lord Nuffield) remained in business when he spend so much money also providing care for his employees and the wider community in and around Oxford?
The winner doesn’t need to take it all, whilst running their companies on a pittance, giving nothing back to those who actually created the wealth, as you and other ultra-capitalists all to often believe…
September 15, 2022
@Mark B; How would you idea help those who pay little or no income tax, no employment based taxes, nor claim benefits? Sorry to ask, as you clearly do not appear to live on Planet Earth, how is the weather on Mars today!
September 15, 2022
Tell us how many people your unusual scenario affects Jerry
Pay little or no income tax, nor claim any benefits.
September 15, 2022
Example: Perhaps with savings made redundant prior to pension age. They may be older and find it more difficult to gain paid employment. Or they could be younger and end up burning through savings for a deposit a house move , a wedding etc
September 16, 2022
Anon, if they are made redundant prior to pension age, they are eligible for benefits when their redundancy runs out; if they take a minimum wage part-time job and are over 25, they can get working tax credits. If they don’t own their home, they are eligible for housing benefits. Often people have to search for what benefits are available themselves as they are not told, but Citizens’ advice will help, Age Concern will help and Online gov.uk website is informative.
September 16, 2022
@a-tracy; You are assuming eligibility…
September 16, 2022
Save just > Ā£6k benefits are reduced. Save >16k you get Ā£0.00. Maybe contributory unemployment benefit for 6 months that’s it. Until you burn through the money. Try it see what happens.
That savings has also been taxed by inflation at 10% to 20% on essentials.
September 16, 2022
If theyāre not eligible jerry in my experience it is because of their overall household income. Can you give me an example where a British citizen on an income under Ā£12,570 pa that wouldnāt be eligible please?
September 16, 2022
@a-tracy; Nonsense, you really do not have a first clue. As @anon points out above, savings are taken into consideration, inheritance and some compensations payments are also considered, and I think the DWP even asks about overseas property, that is ownership, not derived income. It’s a means-test, not a hand-out, thus lot of people simply do not even bother to claim, knowing they will likely receive little or nothing.
And there is another reason why some do not claim, as daft as it is, some people are just to proud, they have spent the up to 40 years listening to some on the right banging on about “workers and shirkers” etc, why do you find it strange some have simply tried to ‘do the right thing’! Now they are being told, no, they should have claimed those benefits they until recently managed to do without even though they quite possible were entitled to them…
You’ve mentioned Citizensā advice further up, yet they and others doing similar work all tell us there are Ā£m’s unclaimed, this is why the benefits system is not suitable to deliver support for the energy price crisis. Why can’t you understand that?
September 17, 2022
Jerry, I thought twice about encouraging you by responding as you are just SO RUDE. No one else insults you by telling you that āyou donāt have a first clueā even though thatās what many are thinking. I thought anon was you under another sign in.
What exactly is it that I donāt have a clue about? I have family that live on pittance State pensions and canāt get pension credits because they keep savings for a rainy day, I donāt agree with Ā£16k per person savings being taken into account because the public sector people that decide if someone has >Ā£16k savings they canāt get the top ups are the only people now that get guaranteed pension earnings for their full lifespan, often after not paying in anything like the contributions they should have to get them, they often donāt appreciate them and donāt count their employer contribution in their wage package when theyāre lining up to strike. Iāve instructed my family to spend their savings on themselves and reduce their savings below the limits to get top ups. As you say they are too proud but this energy crisis will force them to do that this year. But these people wouldnāt begrudge their grandchildren getting a higher personal allowance in order to pay less tax as they seem to worry more about their grandchildren than they do about themselves.
September 17, 2022
@a-tracy; And you have not been rude towards others, calling them ‘stupid’ elsewhere on this blog, because for whatever reason they earn less than you consider they should. I will congratulate you on one thing, at least you haven’t used the word “feckless”, as some would.
“What exactly is it that I donāt have a clue about?”
Anyone who doesn’t fit the pigeonhole of how life/work should be in your opinion, indeed you’ve also now shown your intolerance of those in far higher tax brackets too, why shouldn’t such people get the pension that goes with the job.
“[a relative] canāt get pension credits because they keep savings for a rainy day [..//..] Iāve instructed my family to spend their savings on themselves and reduce their savings below the limits to get top ups.”
Pardon, so your advice is for them to spend their savings on luxuries and then claim top-ups from the taxpayer, to deal with that rainy day?! Never had you down as a closet socialist, but then you do seem to object to the Ā£16k savings rule solely because someone else gets a better pension than your relative. Talk about being green at the gills with envy, do you need a bowl…
September 19, 2022
This is what I said -I donāt agree with Ā£16k per person savings being taken into account because the public sector people that decide if someone has >Ā£16k savings they canāt get the top ups are the only people now that get guaranteed pension earnings for their full lifespan, often after not paying in anything like the contributions they should have to get them, they often donāt appreciate them and donāt count their employer contribution in their wage package when theyāre lining up to strike.-
Let me clarify for you Jerry as you seem to want to put your own spin on my comments. If people get a final salary pension from their public sector employer (mainly) they donāt have to keep savings over Ā£16,000 because theyāve got a decent guaranteed income for life rising with inflation. These public sector workers decide how much someone is allowed in savings after retirement before they are entitled to pension credits, UC, etc. If we were all in defined contribution pensions and treated the same they wouldnāt be so blase and the savings allowance would be higher.
I never said I told them to āspend their savings on luxuriesā donāt tell lies. I said this winterās energy crisis would finally force them to spend their lifetime savings. So they donāt have to freeze to death and so that they can afford to eat Jerry. There is only one person writing with green ink here and its you.
As for your first para. I didnāt say āearning less than I consider they shouldā self-employed people who donāt earn the national minimum wage after their costs have a choice to continue with it or not, they could earn more in PAYE employment. Is it really smart to continue losing money? They are knowingly undercutting the market who are applying the NMW regulations and WTD regulations and paying the minimum holidays and SSP etc. and are having to adjust their sales prices to pay for it.
September 15, 2022
These people earn and are paid less than Ā£12,000, and get no benefits? I’m not sure who you are aiming at because low hours meaning less earnings ought to be getting Universal Credit (which should be partly benefits).
There are more than 13 million people in the UK living in low-income households. Low pay has also been defined in relation to the cost of living by the Minimum Income Standard Project. By their calculations, for a single person household anything less than Ā£19,200 a year, before tax, counts as low pay (but paying income tax!).
September 16, 2022
@MT; Not everyone paid the NMW works a full week, not everyone claims UC.
Also the self employed are not covered by the NMW, take a Sole Trader window cleaner or gardener (with full and proper accounts kept) for example, even if they do pay themselves the hourly NMW should they take a holiday they earn nothing, if they fall ill they earn nothing, if they get rained-off for a week they earn nothing etc, and to top all that if they then buy something for the business there is no chance of any ‘tax deductibles’ adjustment until their earning come close to their PA allowance and thus without those deductibles they would have paid tax.
It is very easy for people to earn far less than your hypothetical minimum.
September 16, 2022
Jerry, of course he self-employed are covered by the NMW (they may not be covered by the WTD but theyād be mad to charge less than the NMW and if they do it is their foolish CHOICE) my father was a window cleaner for a period of his working life. My mother was self-employed, my daughter is self-employed, you employ yourself, you charge a fee to cover the holiday weeks you want to take in your charges. A person who employs another person has to calculate the cost of the holiday pay and incorporate it into their rates, they also have to calculate a % towards ssp and ssp holiday and their employerās NI. My father took window cleanerās federation insurance out in case of accident or illness. This is why self-employed people donāt pay themselves weekly or monthly on PAYE to balance out their earnings.
If someone is stupid enough to pay themselves less than the NMW then they only have themselves to blame.
September 16, 2022
@a-tracy; “If someone is stupid enough to pay themselves less than the NMW then they only have themselves to blame.”
How bl**dy arrogant, and clueless.
Read my comment again, even if they charge the hourly NMW for work done [1], for the reasons I mentioned, at the end of their tax year, when they file a SA their total drawings (and that is what matters here, not their Gross takings) can be under what you assume it should be. You also assume a 40 hour week, and a 52 week year, but not everyone, for legitimate reasons, works those hours, they are NOT “stupid”, nor is it some sort of moral crime – especially if they are not then claiming top-up benefits, even though eligible, and they were JAM and content before the current energy crisis hit.
[1] which just might be the going rate for the work, so how does someone charge more to cover for holidays etc, as you suggest, doing so will likely just cause a lost of customers!
September 17, 2022
What is arrogant about my statement? If someone wishes to pay themselves below the NMW that is their decision and their responsibility. How does that make me arrogant for stating a fact and the truth?
No Jerry, I disagree – if they manage their self-employed micro business correctly they should add their costs to the wage that they want and charge that. If all they charge is the NMW they all they are doing is making a decision to undercut the market. They are the masters of what they charge, if they canāt work out their correct hourly charge rate to allow them to earn the NMW after costs then it is THEIR CHOICE.
I donāt assume anything, it is their choice, they are self-employed. If they canāt earn enough money then go and take a basic NMW job and theyāll immediately be better off. I know lots and I mean LOTS of self-employed people, some of these people want ten weeks off per year and fit their work in around it.
A micro business sets his or her own charge rates. If they set those rates below the level that allows them to earn after costs the NMW then they are āstupidā. No one is forcing them to do it. You are missing the point, they arenāt forced into micro employment.
If they lose customers by charging a rate that allows them to earn at least the NMW + Holidays + sick insurance + pension after other costs then it is their decision and I have no time for it, they shouldnāt be in that market undercutting legitimate businesses that employ others on the above terms set by government. You expect these other businesses to pay holiday and sick pay and extra bank holidays with not the expected days income to cover it. If there are many undercutting micros as you suggest then it will be a good thing if they have to go back into PAYE. On one hand the other day you argued it is small employerās fault for not being able to make up a lost days income and they should seek help from the Unions or their employees or they deserve to go broke and now youāre arguing the opposite.
September 17, 2022
@a-tracy; What do you not understand, no SME, certainly no micro trader, can charge a higher labour rate than the market will stand, what can be done is to buy in added extras at a trade discount and sell them out at RRP+ to the customer, thus boosting the earnings of the otherwise fixed labour rate for the job. But when there is nothing that can be supplied that opportunity to ‘earn’ more is not present, so I will ask again how might a window cleaner, someone who cuts grass, even your beloved dog walker, increase their hourly rate to pay for holidays or whatever, they can’t, thus at the end of their tax year they quite likely are under the PA even before adjustments and thus pay no tax.
Also many people in the last 13 years have become SE because they can not make the commitment an employer needs, even if offered flexible working, and were encouraged to become SE micro businesses rather than sit on JSA/UC, to coin a phrase they have been trying to ‘do the right thing’ now you tell people you know nothing about they they were mugs in effect and should have remained on benefits, just so you can pigeonhole them. Life is not binary, as you appear to believe.
they shouldnāt be in that market undercutting legitimate businesses”
In other words, stop undercutting the big boys, with their fixed cost and expected profit margins! Clue, both are legitimate businesses, even more so when the sole trader claims little or no tax rebates, doesn’t get VAT free B2B sales etc & claims no in-work benefits, whilst the big boys find as many tax loopholes as they can, often whilst paying only the NMW and then expects the govt to provide in-work tax credits to their employees…
a-tracy, sorry if I sound angry at your rather obnoxious, nanny knows best, attitude it’s because I am.
September 18, 2022
Jerry, that opening sentence is the whole point, if the market canāt stand a higher rate because they undercut it then nothing will change for anyone. The fact they undercut each other is the PROBLEM. They will undercut because they are willing to work for less than the NMW. They could earn more doing exactly the same job for someone else. If they are not earning more than they could on the NMW then something is going wrong, the chances are they either they canāt earn legitimately or they are fudging their expenses! These people drive the rate for the job down usually by fudging their taxes.
The fixed labour rate is fixed by the NMW by the government of the day and there are MPs that believe it should be higher still, while turning a blind eye to these undercutters who harm legitimate businesses that you seem to dislike.
My Dad always charged enough per hour to take his holidays, pay his taxes, sick insurance and NI, he may not have a degree but he is smart. If a dog walker is walking their own dog and take on two extras this isnāt a business, its pocket money. I doubt they are declaring it on a self-assessment form. Itās just one example of a way I know that people do top up their income.
The government really should tell the self-employed how much they need to charge per hour just to be equivalent to someone on the NMW at 23 just to break even, if as you say they are incapable of working it out for themselves, I just donāt believe it.
If people choose to become self-employed to earn extra income I have no problem with that. If they undercut the market then I have a problem with that. You donāt know if they own up to their self-employed income or stop claiming benefits. You are just making assumptions. They should stop undercutting the small businesses as well that have all the rules on PAYE, employers NI, holiday pay, the extra holiday that we were so behind last week being thrown in for them to pay for without any turnover for that day. You are just a contrary person for the sake of it. The self employed person gets to offset their vehicle costs the PAYE worker doesnāt. They often offset much more! I find you obnoxious so lets just call it a day.
September 18, 2022
Very well said a-tracy.
I agree with all you have written.
September 15, 2022
Suspend the workplace pension scheme for employee and employer. 5% plus 3% saved.
September 15, 2022
Yes yet another back door tax on top of tax &NI, VAT, council tax, motorists taxes, stamp duty, fuel duty, insurance tax, alcohol taxes, stamp duty, IHT and the rest.
September 15, 2022
Sir John uses the word “regulation”, which is not liked much on Tufton Street.
However, if the energy supply industry had been properly regulated from the start, notably re gas storage, then this price crisis would be far less harsh.
September 15, 2022
It is the over regulation that has created this scenario.
Try getting planning permission for fracking or nuclear sites or exploration for new gas or oil fields when the State is basically opposed and local nimbly groups can elongate permission to start work for years.
Gas storage is not acceptable to government.
The policy is just positive towards renewables
Thought you would be all in favour NHL.
September 16, 2022
Martin, I had to look up Tufton St – not being a political animal like yourself. It immediately gave me a good laugh – thank you…..I’ve missed your unintended chuckles that seemed to have dried up.
September 15, 2022
If it is thought we should be ensuring less damage to the poorly paid, the people on benefits and the older relying on State pension with low other income – then raise the Personal allowance annually. Those who would worry about giving tax back to higher earners could balance things by reducing the threshold on the 40% band.
September 15, 2022
@MT; “raise the Personal allowance annually”
You are someone else who doesn’t seem to understand that there are a lot of low paid people who do not pay any tax, not all are on PAYE, they never exceed their current PA to pay tax, how would either a tax cut or rise in PA level help them?
There are also a lot of ‘high earners’ who have fixed costs, commitments made in better times perhaps, more so since interest rates have risen, just because someone is a high earner doesn’t mean they can not feel the energy crisis pinch too!
September 15, 2022
So no changes or improvements because some people don’t pay tax?
Seems an odd idea to me Jerry.
The vast majority do pay income tax.
September 16, 2022
@Peter2; I never said that, once again you take comments out of the context they were made – providing energy crisis support; after all that is what our hosts blog entry is about, not UK taxation.
I have said nothing for or against the validity of adjustments to tax allowances in a broader sense, other than such adjustments are not the solution to the energy price crisis.
Whatever…
September 16, 2022
Well you have posted several times today saying that increasing the starting point of paying tax is not something you support.
So what do you expect people to think you mean?
September 16, 2022
@Peter2; Stop trolling, I repeat; “I have said nothing for or against the validity of adjustments to tax allowances in a broader sense, other than such adjustments are not the solution to the energy price crisis.”
September 17, 2022
Hilarious that you Jerry, who posts aggressively and often with rudeness multiple times a day on here in response to other people, has the nerve to call others trolls.
You like to dish out out but get very cross and defensive when your views are challenged
September 16, 2022
jerry – see my comment above about those earning less than Ā£12,000 pa.
September 16, 2022
MT – see my reply!
September 16, 2022
MT, if someone is earning less than Ā£12570 and they want to earn more then they need to take on more work. There are plenty of part-time opportunities, from dog walking to part-time shop work to cleaning, relief cover, part-time weekend carers, weekday carers, school dinner helpers, part-time book-keeping, gardening, odd jobs, there are more work than people to do the jobs we are told all the time. If people have few skills and can only take on low skilled jobs then they can do what I and plenty of other did night school, online courses, college courses. They can also apply themselves and businesses would be happy to progress their training and move them up the ranks.
September 16, 2022
@a-tracy; Yet more assumptions about people’s lives you know nothing about… š„
September 17, 2022
Jerry, yet another troll response to me when I wasnāt even responding to you.
I know a lot about people who earn less than Ā£12,570 per year. I know what work they choose to do. I know how many do 16 hours per week to get UC top ups and they work out to the 1p that taking more unpaid holidays (if their employer will allow them) and days off than their contract intended in order to reduce income allows them to get higher assessed benefits rather than doing more work to help themselves.
I know single parent mothers at the age of 16 that were sensible and got all their hairdressing training, childcare etc paid for by the state, that are now in a good place and continued their lifelong training to progress into colouring and other skilled roles. I know others that chose to do nothing but sit at home bleating about life. I know people that have started at the bottom and dragged themselves up with night school courses and in work promotion and other progressions. Donāt tell me what I know and what I donāt know.
September 17, 2022
@a-tracy; Just to point out three life situations were someone might not be able to take on more work; 1/. a mature full time student 2/. those with caring responsibilities 3/. those with health issues.
Non are necessarily eligible for benefits, all are doing the right thing, all were JAM until recently, yet all you do is lecture them ‘to work more’ offering nothing but utter contempt for their plight. God help the Tory party with ‘friends’ like you, come the next election, whilst the student might not be a natural Tory voter the other two were…
September 17, 2022
How do you come to that conclusion Jerry, that I offer nothing but utter contempt for their plight?
September 17, 2022
@a-tracy; Your our reply to MT above reads like a typical back-to-work lecture, ignoring anything that doesn’t fit the flip-chart tick-boxes, your expectations of people appear very binary, many people would just love to do more work, earn more, but their life situation precludes it. Then there is your reply to me (that actually crossed with the comment I’m now replying to) if more proof of your contempt was needed, you say “Donāt tell me what I know and what I donāt know.”, why can’t I tell you what you so obviously appear not to know?!
As for UC, it’s a mess as far as I can see, and of course some will play the system but many won’t, stop taring everyone with your brush. But I have said many times I’m talking about those who do not claim such benefits, remember this was meant to be a discussion about how to get help to those facing high energy prices, you and others got on your usual hobby horses wanting that help directed via the tax and benefits systems despite each failing to reach perhaps significant numbers.
September 18, 2022
Jerry, you of all people talk about assumptions, you are the king of assumptions.
I will take your advice from now on at the bottom of this thread @skip jerryš£.
September 15, 2022
The poisonous cancer of Socialism has infected the soul of the Conservative Party and it will bankrupt this nation’s moral, civil and fiscal base
Reply You have published this view most days for a very long time. You could help restore good government by telling us which bad laws and taxes you think we can realistically abolish or reform given the current position.
September 15, 2022
After allā¦there are enough laws to choose from. Thousands and thousands every year.All seeking to squash us and restrict us and nanny us. And ruin our lives.
And then those blighting international laws. Pages and pages of total guff that I bet NOBODY reads let alone understands yet they have ruined this country.
Letās start by getting rid of that new and ludicrous and highly dangerous law regarding road hierarchy.
AND then all the laws/regulations still overhanging from our subjugation to the EU.
September 15, 2022
Yes CUIBONO , Starting with the euās VAT , or are we not really out of the eu!
We need to encourage people to buy British so lets start with a 20% tax on all imported goods !
On a different subject I do believe that the road hierarchy rule is totally ill thought out. On the winding road from Great Torrington to Bideford on Monday I witnessed a lone cyclist with a three mile tailback of cars and lorries, despite the empty Tarka Trail running beside the road the whole way between the two towns. Totally stupid, it must have been dreamt up for cycling MPās in London!
September 15, 2022
+1
Agree 100%
September 15, 2022
@MFD; “Starting with the euās VAT , or are we not really out of the eu!”
Not that old claptrap again, VAT is just another name for Purchase Tax, the UK had purchase tax well before we entered the EEC. Prior to April 1973 this Purchase tax could be quite punishing, depending how the govt of the day defined a “Luxury product”, with some purchases attracting a rate of at least 50%.
And don’t forget UK domestic electricity, gas, heating oil & solid fuel were VAT Exempt under the 1972 EEC accession agreement, and remained so until 1994 when the Tory govt removed that exemption, setting the applicable rate at 8% (although the intent had been to raise that to 17.5% a year later), Labour cut the rate back to 5% in 1997 but under EU law could not restore the Exemption that had existed prior. Don’t blame the EU for Tory govt errors.
“We need to encourage people to buy British so lets start with a 20% tax on all imported goods”
I’m all for more UK manufacturing, along with exporting more of our UK products and produce, but your suggestion would be economic, never mind political, suicide as things stand! Yours is a policy more at home in the old USSR or in North Kora, we simply do not have enough capacity within our domestic industry, and some products have never been made here in the UK and likely never will, either the shops would be all but empty or inflation would be 20%+, perhaps both…
That said, I’m sure it is not impossible to create a taxation regime that further encourages such investment here in the UK, either inward or home-grown.
September 15, 2022
You don’t have to know about McCartney’s ‘Long and winding road’ to be aware of crazy road situations when waiting for maintaining at least a 5′ space outside a cyclist, and worse when 2 or more insist on riding side by side. Wokingham residents are likely to know the roads from Twyford via Wargrave to Henley-on-Thames. A nightmare for anyone who would like to drive at permissable speeds.
September 16, 2022
I suspect the rules will lead to an increase in head on collisions with motor traffic often crossing far into the lane in the opposite direction. Cyclists and pedestrians seem to think that blind corners on country roads are good places to be in the middle of the road.
September 15, 2022
Yes, let’s prioritise car drivers over pedestrians. Make the most vulnerable the least important. Great idea. Not.
How about doing something to improve driving standards instead? Getting drivers to pay attention to the road instead of their phones, using their indicators for the purpose for which they are provided, knowing what the 2 second rule is, why it is there, and actually using it.
September 15, 2022
@Peter Parsons; Motor vehicles do not make pedestrians vulnerable, the pedestrians themselves and some vehicle drivers do, by all means punish those vehicle drivers who are at fault when they do wrong but do not make them the scapegoat for others actions whilst giving those others cart-blanch to act as daftly they wish.
For example why do some pedestrians fail to think, yes the Highway Code ADVISES then to face oncoming traffic when walking along a road without pavement, but when that traffic will be approaching from around a blind bend? Nor will any 20 Mph speed limit save a pedestrian from being knocked down and perhaps killed should they step/run out without looking. What is more a bicycle can kill too.
Same for cyclists, why do some cyclists endanger themselves, never mind others, by not using provided cycle ways or paths, why do some still not wear a protective helmet, why do some cyclists believe the speed limit does not apply to them, or believe they should be able to cycle as fast, perhaps faster, than the highways speed limit when cycling on a shared pavement, and they also need to use lights at night, and fix those lights TO THE BIKE, not their head. How many cyclist have no audible warning device fitted to their bike.
By all means have a go at car drivers who use mobile phones whilst driving, but cyclists also need to put that particular house in order too, they too need to stop using their mobile phones/devices whilst riding, more so if hand held…
Grant Shapps had the right ideas, pity he is no longer in post.
September 15, 2022
If a pedestrian does something stupid and gets hit by a car, they will come off worse. If a pedestrian does nothing wrong and gets hit by a car driven by a driver who does something stupid, the pedestrian still comes off worse. Do you see the common outcome here irrespective of who was actually at fault?
People need to take responsibility for their actions, but when their actions harm others more than themselves, then there needs to be consequences for that, whether a driver, motorbike rider, cyclist or pedestrian, hence the reason for the law change earlier this year.
Writing as someone who drives, rides motor bikes, cycles, runs and walks, my experience is that too many people sit in their metal boxes on wheels and have (1) an over-inflated of the capabilities of both themselves and their car, and (2) a false sense of security and safety.
And I also agree that there are plenty of bad cyclists out there too. No lights, dark clothing which makes them hard to see and be seen, cycling on pavements that they aren’t allowed on. Some cyclists can be just as bad as some drivers.
September 16, 2022
@Peter Parsons; As a motorist have you actually read the new Highway Code, more importantly understood all it implies, I suspect not. Yes if a pedestrian does something stupid they will come off worse, no one disputes that, but the motorist is now assumed at fault even if no other offence has been committed, s/he should have anticipated such an act of foolishness!
The idea behind the change was correct, making clear the cascading level of risk to all road users, but the anti car and HGV lobby (or perhaps the Cashcow who issues fines) within the DfT clearly managed to get the thinking turned on its head; unlike as published, those most at risk should be the ones being told to be more careful, to understand the risk they are putting themselves at, and that applies to all, from pedestrian to HGV driver – very few road users, of any type, pick arguments with trains at level crossings, there is a clear understanding why, trains are heavier, travel faster, can’t stop, nor swerve like a pedestrian, cyclist, car or HGV can…
September 15, 2022
You are outlining precisely WHY this new law is such a bad idea.
September 15, 2022
Reply to reply. He’s probably too busy wandering up and down Oxford St with his sandwich board with the slogan “The end is nigh”.
September 15, 2022
If he were his slogan would not be far wrong.
September 15, 2022
Miami mode,
I do miss the chap who had the Oxford Street sandwich board with the message:-
‘Less protein. Less lust.’
All part of life’s rich tapestry. None of the usual suspects on here have such a wacky message.
The man was Stanley Green and he died in 1993. I believe he commuted in from Harrow.
September 15, 2022
If the people of this country, and I include MPs in this, don’t understand that the ‘war’ in Ukraine, the impositions of sanctions on Russia and the resultant increase in energy prices is all to do with the Great Reset and the de-industrialisation of the West, there’s no hope and the UK has no future.
I’m very disappointed that I have to include our host in this, as evident from his previous post on the topic. If you want a proper analysis of what is unfolding before our very eyes, listen to Alexander Mercouris on his Youtube channel.
The window for negotiating peace between Ukraine and Russia has now closed. You can thank Boris Johnson for that who scuppered negotiations several months ago with the result that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers’ lives were needlessly lost. Our country has blood on its hands.
September 15, 2022
You want MPs to think about geopolitics, O. Chr.? No chance, unless it’s ‘What does NATO want?’
What’s best for British people’s standard of living, jobs, healthcare and mid-term energy security? Some of them can manage some of these issues some of the time, but they don’t seem to get the overall picture of global forces at work. To be fair, their constituency responsibilities must take up a great deal of their time, but even so this country has had backbenchers or opposition frontbenchers that stood head and shoulders above the rest because they did get the big picture. Churchill is the outstanding example. Thatcher in 1974-75 would be another.
September 15, 2022
Spot on,Clough!My reply to The other Christine has not made it past the censor.
September 15, 2022
+many
Exactly!
September 15, 2022
As Elon Musk(I know) stated last week, the difference between the US and the EU(At the moment that includes the UK) is that in the US everything is ālegalā unless the legislators say it is not and everything in the EU is āillegalā unless the bureaucrats make it legal.
Its hard for some to see the subtle difference but it is the difference between a Democracy and a Dictatorship. Unless Laws, Rules and Regulations and the like that affect us inside the UK are made, amended and repealed by our legislators (MPās) – they should be immediately be seen as invalid and struck off. Simply a bad law is the one without full democratic accountability.
The US as with other like minded people retain the UKās original concept and point of Democracy
Human Rights Law is a comfort blanket for bureaucrats who figh democracy daily – it is never needed when you have a functioning accounatable Parliment.
September 15, 2022
Agreed Ian B
The Human Rights Act is wholly unnecessary if you have the rule of law and equality under the rule of law.
September 15, 2022
Well it would be a very long list of bad laws, regulations and taxes. Certainly since Thatcher (and even under Thatcher to a degree – she did little or nothing about the dire NHS state monopoly, state educations, the EU and even fell for climate alarmism) the Conservative Party has been a socialist party. I give truss the benefit of the doubt but this energy price control policy and her retention of Sharma and Net Zero is an idiotic start.
As to the list:- Cancel the endless attacks on Landlords, the self employed, small businesses, much of the green crap & OTT building regulations, net zero, simplify and speed up planning rules, most employment laws, much misguided health and safety, stop blocking the roads, cancel the basket case HS2, stop having bank holidays, stop injecting people (young people esp.) with ineffective and dangerous vaccinesā¦reduce taxes and the size of the state from the highest for 70 years to under 25% of GDP. Most is spend doing little of value and much does positive harm. Also simplify taxes hugely another tax on top of tax in compliance costs, cull no win/ no fee litigationā¦
September 15, 2022
I had no idea people are forcibly injected.
September 16, 2022
I did not say āforciblyā but many were coerced (for job or travel reasons). Even people who were at no risk from Covid and even people who had Covid already.
September 15, 2022
Reply to Reply
Indeed there is little scope to reduce taxes. By there is massive scope to stop wasting money. The latest example? How much are funerals these days?
Your man will not be able to give you a list of taxes to reduce (he might suggest Stamp Duty but that just leads to more house price inflation) but I can give you a very long list of wasted money. Top of the list is the biggest white elephant in history, HS2.
September 15, 2022
Reply to reply: Having complained about the regulation of shops to make them put things where HMG wants and not where they want, I now read this interference may be discontinued. Too late for our local shop which is still at sixes and sevens, but encouraging none the less.
Another regulation they might do away with is in bathrooms, where no matter how big and high the room – e.g. a Victorian bedroom previously – the light must be a regulation bathroom light and screwed to the ceiling, even if it means one breaks ones neck changing the bulb. All based on modern Dusseldorf flats apparently.
September 15, 2022
The reports coming out on what appears to be a near daily basis that EVs are now more expensive to run than ICE’s and that they should be paying road tax as they are heavier, the lack of charging points and infrastructure, the low mileage achieved on tyres all together with the high initial purchase price is not helping any government’s fear campaign to get the people to go down the desired path. The costs are unsustainable and should we experience a really severe winter there will be more egg on the faces of politicians and companies try to sustain the existance of the renewable sect and its religious beliefs that they have all fallen for.
There are a lot of countries in the world powering up their homes and industries with new coal power stations and mining even more to coal satisfy the demand.
The elephant in the room is still there.
The safe disposal of all the turbine blades, batteries and solar panels.
September 15, 2022
Add to that, the current direction of EV development seems to be that batteries will form an integral part of the chassis & structure of the car…
So, will that make the complete car a disposable item once the batteries (or even a small proportion) fail?
September 15, 2022
Know-Dice
The grid will never supply the so called renewable energy so we will be severely restricted in our travel plans. Quite intentional I believe to restrict our very lives.
September 15, 2022
This is part of a well laid out plan to prevent people from owning cars.
September 15, 2022
+1
September 15, 2022
So much to do and so little parliamentary time to do it. Swivel serpents meanwhile running wild without proper governance and oversight.
Sir J I suggest Parliament sits until Xmas without the customary recess, there are too many urgent issues to fix.
September 15, 2022
It is not the owning but the freedom available by having the use of one we do not wish to lose.
September 16, 2022
+1
September 15, 2022
Turboterrier: there is another elephant in the room – wind turbines installed in sea areas cause environmental damage to ocean flora and fauna.
September 15, 2022
SM
Totally correct.
But very few people are listening. Those who are banished to the back benches.
September 15, 2022
Yes SM, and minces every living creature that flies into them.
September 15, 2022
Saving the world from all this insanity never stops.
Bloomberg with a thought-provoking article of a worst-case scenario and the good old UK still will not support its people or its industries with using coal which we still have in abundance.
China May Boost Coal Power Plant Building Amid Energy Crunch.
The worldās biggest energy user is expected to add 270 gigawatts of thermal capacity in the five years through 2025, China Energy Engineering Corp., the countryās top energy engineering conglomerate, said in an online briefing on Thursday. That would be more than the 100 to 200 gigawatts estimated in 2020 by a senior researcher at State Grid of China Corp. Energy Research Institute.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-08/china-to-add-more-coal-plants-than-thought-to-ease-energy-crunch?mc_cid=95d61bc1b6&mc_eid=4961da7cb1
Let’s face it Sir John we are going backward, and the poorest people will be the ones that suffer. Add on all the dingy invaders and you just compound the problem. It is all linked..
September 15, 2022
Loads more expensive and they produce far more CO2 than keeping you old ICU car as they need to do 80,000 miles or so to cover the CO2 needed to mine and build battery and car. Plus we have now spare low carbon electricity spare anyway.
Just financing costs and depreciation can be circa Ā£1 a mile before insurance, repairs, servicing, charging, charge pointsā¦ My old cars cost about 35p a mile for fuel and everything else all in. Plus they do 600+ miles on a tank refill in three mins, can tow and are far more flexible. Plus as I say they cause far less CO2 than a new EV should plant/tree/crop food wrongly worry you.
September 15, 2022
” Europe needs to secure supplies of gas and oil. The U.K. can do something about this reality as it has reserves to exploit.”
The Government hasn’t got the nous or the cojones to exploit OUR reserves in OUR interests. They treat the EU as “friends and allies” which they have clearly proved they aren’t over the past 6 years. They either have no idea how to play hardball with the EU or they’re too frit to do it.
They would far sooner bankrupt the British people than upset Brussels (or Macron).
I’d start with: you want oil and gas? Scrap the NI Protocol. And to Macron: you want oil and gas? Take back the criminal migrants leaving France for the UK – including the 50,000 you’ve already transferred here.
September 15, 2022
Donna steady on there – now that we have taken back control we don’t have to have anything more to do with the evil empire so don’t upset yourself, europe with the EU is a big place and I’m sure they will be able to manage perfectly well without us. We should instead be looking to these new trade deals with countries far away like we were promised.
September 15, 2022
+1. If Europe had Gas and oil reserves like us, I suspect they’d be saying both fuels were green and they’d get digging.
I’m sitting in Austria, which has a bit of hydro but not much else. The wind turbines and solar panels here are insufficient in summer, let alone the bleak Austrian winter. The government’s said it will bung us all 500 euros, but beyond that it’s take cold showers or keep your houses cold, and expect power cuts. The first demos against this are starting this weekend. A presidential election looms, too.
September 15, 2022
Demonstrations across Europe are not being covered by the mainstream media.
September 15, 2022
Vienna is effectively powered by the big nuclear power stations in Czechia. A nice irony, given the Austrian anti nuclear posture. Austria is home to the important Baumgarten gas hub which handles gas piped across the Ukraine and Slovakia. Volumes are still flowing, but at much lower rates than normal. Austria does actually have a year’s gas storage, but it’s only about 70% full as reduced import volumes and demand to fill storage in Germany have reduced their injection.
September 15, 2022
Fair bit of āfar rightā in Austria. Be interesting to see what happens in that election
September 15, 2022
A bit of hydro ?
Are you sure ?
I read that hydro is 60% of electricity generation in Austria.
There is a big hydro centre in the Kaprun area, where I’ve seen the dams.
September 15, 2022
…hydro is 60% of electricity generation in Austria. meaning not much electricity is generated there.
September 15, 2022
Given the price of gas in Europe has fallen rapidly in the last couple of weeks and Goldman Sachs are predicting it will halve again before winter it may turn out that the Truss socialist price cap will be less costly for the taxpayer than if she’d calculated and announced direct cash handouts at the peak of the recent artificially high price spike (which was driven by government-mandated buyers in Europe filling storage). I am assuming this would be pure chance rather than due to accurate Treasury predictions.
Just as an aside here’s an interesting link to a chart showing the gas wholesale price in USA and Europe. It shows at one point the price in Europe was ten times higher than in USA. It should be shown to all those who say “There is a global gas price so there’s no point in fracking”.
https://www.axios.com/2022/07/11/europe-natural-gas-prices
September 15, 2022
Thanks for that link. I looked for that info yesterday. Prices in the States seem to be in dollars per therm. Here they are in Ā£ per cubic foot. My sums concluded that consumers paid about 3 times more for our gas here. Seems my numbers were way out!
September 15, 2022
UK NBP prices are often quoted and traded in p/therm. 10 therms is 1 MMBtu, so conversion just involves the exchange rate and a decimal place. You can also find UK prices quoted in $/MMBtu based on the ICIS/Heren assessment which is an industry benchmark at the CME. Continental prices such as TTF are quoted in ā¬/MWh. There are about 29.3kWh in a therm. For a quick calculation, assume 30, so 399p/therm current price is about 13.3p/kWh.
September 15, 2022
The chart doesn’t show the recent price spike to over $100/MMBtu in the UK and Europe. Winter prices are about $70/MMBtu at the moment. Goldman Sachs may well have sold forward hedges to companies backed by EU governments, and might have an interest in being able to cover them at lower prices.
I would place more trust in the analysis of Timera, who have no trading axe to grind. They suspect that the winter will see rapid withdrawal from storage and inadequate import volumes in Europe, constrained by lack of non pipeline import capacity. Electricity shortages certainly loom. The French winter plan assumes ongoing imports, including from the UK. The National Grid winter plan assumes we will be able to import from France at will. Something will have to give. High prices to destroy demand or power cuts beckon.
September 15, 2022
Sir John, you are speaking common sense. You say what we think.
My question is how many other Conservative MPs are of the same mind when they look at the massive deficit and debt?
September 15, 2022
Mike Stallard
Not a Lot. About 50 if you are lucky.
September 15, 2022
That is a very good question Sir John – and one I’ve often asked myself when considering my vote.
You’ve had it for many years but there were often times when (because of your party’s poor leadership) I’ve done it through gritted teeeth. All those fine words and promises that never seemed to be matched by their actions. Not your fault or doing, I know but that hasn’t changed the reality of your “conservative” government.
Fortunately (for your party) there hasn’t been a viable alternative but I’m sure that you know that the Conservatives will be in real trouble if ever a genuine conservative, low tax, small goverment party does ever manage to establish itself.
Maybe Liz can start to turn the tide for you (let’s hope so) but even if she wishes to do so, I suspect she will experience huge resistance from within your party, perhaps more than from without it.
September 15, 2022
Perhaps it should have been 3 strikes and you are out? Thank heavens for Corbyn Conservatives were saying.
September 15, 2022
Yes, Sir John is absolutely right when he says: “I favour doing more by way of tax cuts on energy, adding an end to VAT on fuel and cancellation of the carbon tax to cut energy costs.” These are exactly the right things to do. Scrap VAT and the stupid carbon taxes which are artificially inlating energy prices, not just for consumers but for businesses too. So why has Liz Truss done NOTHING about these things? She has FAILED already! First impressions count, and my first impression of her is that she is not up to the job.
September 15, 2022
I would guess the Treasury has convinced someone we can’t cut VAT in NI and therefore must not cut it anywhere. Nonsense. It is time we reasserted our fiscal sovereignty over NI.
September 15, 2022
Truss was being lined up to replace Boris by the people that matter even before “partygate”.You’ve fallen for it yet again.
September 16, 2022
+1
I think that also. Riding around in a tank and dressing like Mrs. Thatcher. No coincidence š
September 16, 2022
Mitchel, what top 3 things do you think Truss is there to do differently than what Boris was planning?
September 15, 2022
Carbon tax is likely to spread through out the economy. The UK ETS, which is basically a copy of the EU version which we left, is currently trading at Ā£78 per tonne of CO2 emitted. That will add about Ā£14 per MWh to the fuel price for gas fired CCGT generators output; and, Ā£25 per MWh to coal fired generators output.
September 16, 2022
UKA prices have fallen back from recent highs of almost Ā£100/tCO2e, at which level they were adding over Ā£35/MWh to CCGT costs and thus electricity in general (and almost Ā£100/MWh to coal costs). Your figures are too low in proportion.
The fall is partly an expectation of dampening down carbon taxation which merely serves to make energy expensive.
September 15, 2022
I can understand windfall tax would deter investment, but won’t sky high profits encourage sky high dividends too, along with even bigger pay rises for the directors? The shareholder takes the profits and the taxpayer takes the losses, as usual. Presumably, they will be getting taxpayers money even under Liz’s scheme, won’t they, so as to guarantee their profits.
September 15, 2022
Yes, windfall taxes can deter investment, which is why it is better to avoid the profiteering windfall profits in the first place! Steady, predictable profits are what businesses want most. Sir John says: “The problem with price controls is they might put people off investing in more supply, deterred by lower and unpredictable returns” – which is why I have proposed a price control that does NOT result in “unpredictable returns”. A payment of ‘actual cost + reasonable profit’ (I propose 7%) would solve the problems. This would create stability on both sides (the energy producers and the customers) and would mean companies have money to invest in new production, knowing they will get a guaranteed rate of return.
September 16, 2022
The EU has announced that it will only pay 170 euros per MWh to wind and solar, which is still 3x the gas generation price before the supply was deliberately reduced. UK renewable are taking the subsidies as before and selling at top gas generation prices. If ever there was a windfall to be taxed, surely this must be it. The EU expects to save enough from their tax ,which is called something else to pay for some of the subsidies to consumers. But of course the Saudi of Wind refuses to tax renewable.
September 15, 2022
Unfortunately the PMās recent statement on energy policy, which you published, offers nothing sufficiently radical to reverse the irrational continuing emphasis on renewables and net zero. The terms of reference for the review of fracking – which should have been completed and published by now – confine the exercise to a desk study with no comparable evidence from other countries required. A genuinely welcoming approach to a continuation of fossil fuel extraction, combined with a phasing out over say 10 years of renewable subsidies, have been deliberately avoided. To think that some of us used to think of the EU as the greatest threat to our democracy and prosperity. Itās now an 80 seat majority Conservative government fixing prices and still fixated on net zero.
September 15, 2022
I’d struggle if I tried to disagree with any of that, MPC! However, let’s be hopeful. Truss does have a record of saying little in favour of the climate scam, even when she was environment minister several years back, I believe.
September 15, 2022
Sir John
The problem you have when proposing to cut any tax is that the government already spends that tax money and more.
Whilst we have prime minister after prime minister going around the world throwing money at other countries like a drunken sailor on shore leave, we’ll never get our finances straight.
During budget speeches, multiple Chancellors have said words like, because we’ve had to spend less than expected on X, I can spend that money on Y. The only problem is usually that money is borrowed money.
Again, I say that we need a grown up debate about just what we want and need the government to do for us and cut back the state accordingly. We need the state to act like a state and not like some type of helicopter parent which is always hovering and watching over us.
September 15, 2022
@Cliff – when taxes are lowered they increase the inflow. When we had a Conservative Government in the UK that is exactly what happened (So history gets to prove the premiss). In the EU State of the Republic of Ireland they halved the Corporation Tax yet double the intake on the previous level.
September 15, 2022
Many large Corps noted they could organise to move profits made in many countries to Ireland and pay considerably lower tax as a result. Not rocket science, lower your Corp Tax rate below others and the new smart money will come to you.
September 16, 2022
+1
September 15, 2022
Perhaps we await Mr. Kwarteng’s delayed special fiscal operation before seeing the wholly sensible measure of eliminating VAT on electricity and gas?
Otherwise, the recently materially increased standing charges ought to be much reduced or, preferably, eliminated too. This would disproportionally benefit the least well off and reduce the cost to government of fuel benefits payments.
September 15, 2022
Yes agreed Sir John.
Subsidies should be removed entirely from energy production. Any industry requiring constant financial support does not deserve to survive at all, and that means the end of wind and solar. This of course will never happen as too much political capital is invested in the fantasy of GW/CC/NZ. So what if it destroys the economy, so long as political aims are met.
September 15, 2022
Correct.
It would be interesting to see a list of senior anti-British Establishment figures (starting with the Royals and encompassing Parliament, Whitehall, the Quangocracy and the Eco”charities) who benefit directly from “renewable” subsidies.
I suspect it’s the ultimate example of the transfer of money from the poor to the wealthy.
September 15, 2022
Indeed Donna. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of who is trousering what!
September 15, 2022
The thing is they make proposals that are fallen upon by msm like starving dogs on a bone then comes the U turn and then all goes back to exactly as before.
All very depressing and Truss appears to have performed several about turns.
September 15, 2022
The Telegraph leader today:- The NHS is wrong to cancel appointments
How disappointing it is, and yet how predictable, that the NHS should use the funeral of the Queen on Monday to scale back its services. Patients who have waited weeks, or even months, for hospital consultations and routine operations have suddenly been told their appointments for that day have been cancelled. Many have yet to be rescheduled because the treatment backlog is so great that finding alternative dates is difficult.
Quite right they are too. Some doctor on the radio defending the NHS said not to worry as they will have an emergency service like they have a weekends. But if you look at the statistics the NHS kill circa 10-26% more (depending on the medical conditions) at weekends due to the poorer slower service, lack of scans and specialists – so this bank holiday will kills tens of people perhaps even over 100. Would the Queen have wanted this? I thing not. The economic damage causes will also harm people and reduce tax receipts.
Has Truss and the Government not looked the appalling current rates of excess non covid deaths and the lengths of the waiting lists. If so is it that do they just not give a damn?
September 15, 2022
Reminds me of somethingā¦umā¦oh yesā¦our period of house arrest..imprisonment. They just canāt resist anotherās can they?
September 15, 2022
*anotherās = another go
September 15, 2022
Seriously what do people expect, when the rest of the Country is told they have an extra bank holiday, very generous of the people who don’t have to pay for it. Why would the NHS workers, the nurses not want the day off too, to look after their children that don’t go to school etc. even if the consultants wanted to work as many did in the private sector all the back up staff want their extra free day.
The funeral should have been on Sunday. The minority of businesses then affected could have applied for furlough if necessary, in the manner of the covid lockdown, as the government effectively shut them down, when the public sector closes nowadays the private sector, the subcontractors catch a cold.
September 15, 2022
Maybe the EU believes more bird and bat choppers are the way to go because their calculations regarding % of wind and renewables do not take into account that even if 100% of renewable energy is reached much fossil fuel is still needed!
BTWā¦when they have closed down all manufacture how will they make more windmills? Stone, wood and brute force?
September 15, 2022
Treadmills.
JF
September 15, 2022
Ohā¦with us doing the treading? Wouldnāt surprise me in the least. āClimate deniersā rounded up and set to work!
September 15, 2022
Cuibono
Here are a few more candidates
Climate Emergency Not Supported by Data, Say Four Leading Italian Scientists..As reported in the Daily Sceptic. Well worth the time to read it.
Four leading Italian scientists have undertaken a major review of historical climate trends and concluded that declaring a āclimate emergencyā is not supported by the data…..cont
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/15/climate-emergency-not-supported-by-data-say-four-leading-italian-scientists/
September 15, 2022
+1
Thanks for that..will read.
September 15, 2022
Treadmills are fuelled by food energy & need loads fuels to farm, produce, prepare, cook…
September 15, 2022
Burning the dried food would be more efficient.
September 15, 2022
+1
Absolutely.
Cut out the middle men!
September 15, 2022
but if we didn’t eat much, we get thinner and feel colder – thus needing more heat?
September 15, 2022
The Boris way – just import. As foreign manufacture doesnāt affect global warming(his view), the again when there is no economy we cant afford to import.
September 15, 2022
+1
September 15, 2022
There is no doubt in my mind that whatever short term solutions are initiated by the government, fracking must begin as soon as possible to secure our long term growth.
September 15, 2022
Too right about the problems of wind power. 25.5GW of installed capacity in the UK and it’s currently producing 6GW. Why don’t they get the rest of it working, considering right now there appears to be fresh breezes all round the coast?
As to European wind power, the wind map shows the whole continent with light winds, and only decent wind over Denmark. It seems to be like this most of the time.
On the other hand, I prefer the EU approach of a mix of measures. The Truss response of writing the energy companies a blank cheque removes their need to be competitive with their prices. Why should the retail suppliers negotiate a good price when the energy companies can charge what they like with the difference made up by UK borrowing? They must have thought about this, so perhaps we’ll get a better picture in time.
September 15, 2022
Dave, the lowest I’ve seen from wind turbine generation in the last few years is 0.6GW which occurred when the demand for energy was at its highest, 45GW. The critical time for the Grid this winter will be January/February when the UK sometimes sits under a blanket of stratus cloud that lasts for weeks, while winds from Norway to Morocco fall to almost zero. Then the contribution to our heating, lighting and industry from renewable energy will be overtaken by coal, what’s left of it. (Or the winds will blow — this is the UK after all — and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, the heavyweight papers will publish articles about the wonders of renewable energy, and the Gods of the Copybook headings will spin the revolver cylinder in readiness for the next Russian roulette gamble.)
There is a path from where we are — up the mucky estuary with no outboard motor — to Net Zero. Current plans for relying on renewables, and crossed fingers are not on that path and will lead to tragedy.
JF
September 15, 2022
Dave Andrews
Now, this is something that one could say is important. But when will we ever learn?
Not So Cheap: Wind & Solar āTransitionā Sends Britainās Power Prices Into Orbit
Energy Hyperinflation Ship launching from UK in 3, 2, 1ā¦ prices so high there is talk of fracking?
Really good letter from the Jo Nova blog with some very hard-hitting comments from other media sources
http://stopthesethings.com/2022/09/12/not-so-cheap-wind-solar-transition-sends-britains-power-prices-into-orbit/
September 15, 2022
The EU is busy bickering while its members do senseless things like closing perfectly functional power stations. They are not able to agree on policy, which is why you see a hodge podge. Many key consequences, such as rationing, are not openly discussed. There are likely to be some fearsome squabbles between some of those who are in a better position and some who will be in difficulty. The jazz song made famous by Billie Halliday has it right:
Them that’s got shall have
Them that’s not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that’s got his own, that’s got his own
September 15, 2022
I see France is now talking about rolling 2 hour power cuts for homes over the winter.
I discovered that our 3 day week in 1974 resulted in a 20% decline in electricity consumption. Of course we had rather more industry to shut down back then.
September 15, 2022
VAT is a legacy from the EC and its many complications hamper. Ending VAT on fuel would be a fitting start to ending VAT generally, but taxing CONSUMPTION is sensible.
Adding VALUE is desirable. Tax exists to fund Govt spending and discourage bad behaviour: not to discourage valuable productive effort. Taxing folk more for working longer or more efficiently is counter-productive.
However, conceptually, if tax had to be generated from only one source, taxing energy would be a prime candidate. Its consumption reaches virtually every activity.
September 15, 2022
“Tax exists to fund Govt spending” Indeed but mainly government wasting – governments should only do they very few things they can do better and more efficiently than individuals, charities and businesses can – law and order, defence and not very much more. 25% of what would then be a much larger GDP is plenty for this. But UK governments have for years decided that they should in run and control almost everything and get larger and larger with the disastrous results as we see in state monopoly health care and much else. They rig the markets in energy, water, CO2, housing, employment, transport, health care, long term care, banking… with generally rather disastrous results.
September 15, 2022
>Taxing folk more for working longer or more efficiently is counter-productive.
I wholeheartedly support this comment!
September 15, 2022
VAT was simply a replacement of Purchase Tax which was introduced in 1940, long before the EU existed.
September 15, 2022
A far less efficient, more idiotic and more complex replacement though.
September 15, 2022
Purchase Tax, which existed between 1940-1973. Its name was slightly misleading since it was added during the manufacturing and distribution process rather than at retail outlets.
September 15, 2022
VAT is the most complicated tax and most prone to fraud. What other tax gives you a cash refund before you even pay the tax? Why on earth hasn’t anyone thought of issuing a ‘credit note’ instead of giving actual money, so that it can offset the VAT payment they have yet to make? Do they WANT VAT fraud?
September 15, 2022
It seems to me the the arrangement for the Queen have largely ignored the North East, North West, Wales, the Midlands, East Anglia & the West Country. More than 60% of the population live in these areas. But then they are used to this from Government.
Wales clearly should have voted for full devolution then they would be spoiled as the Scots are. But then they are daft enough to elect the appalling Drakeford so perhaps deserve all they get. These other regions should perhaps demand independence too if they do not want to be ignored.
The government also generally maltreats the 80% who work for the private sector regarding them largely as expendable tax cash cows to be endlessly over taxed, over regulated and perhaps given a few generally very poor public services.
September 15, 2022
@Lifelogic – you are wrong. The UK population exsists only in the left leaning libral areas of Metro London
September 16, 2022
Lifelogic, you are wrong, the royals have visited the capital of Wales whilst they are mourning, they have visited Manchester, they have visited Glasgow, they visited Northern Ireland; what do you want that the Queen’s body to be toured around the Country I don’t think anyone else would expect that. Also, in these areas, for example, Manchester, the Manchester Mayor nor the local tv news made a big thing of the Royals visiting Manchester or the crowds to show their respect may have been bigger. Grief can overwhelm people, the royals have done more than most British people would during their devastating mourning period give them a break.
September 15, 2022
What’s the point of all these regulators? They fail to regulate in any meaningful way and when things go wrong they don their tin hats, make excuses and say there was nothing they could do as it was all beyond their control or remit. Outside of public service people have to take responsibility for their actions.
September 15, 2022
The energy crisis was/is cause by net zero a policy that Truss still retains, she even retains the “services” of Alok Sharma. We now also have a deluded King who strongly supports net zero, organic farming, bans on GM crops and quack medicine to make things even worse. Though clearly saving energy is not for him and his family.
Indeed, without net zero and the Europe’s generally moronic energy and other daft policies Putin’s war would probably never have taken place.
September 15, 2022
Miami, the regulators will find how helpless they are when Sizewell C is delayed by years, the price goes into the stratosphere and the regulators get the blame. You thought HS2 was the most wasteful part of the budget? Stick around, the EPR programme is just getting its boots on.
JF
September 15, 2022
Since the EdF board decision not to proceed with Sizewell C we have the perfect opportunity to cancel any further EPRs and get on with a programme of ABWRs at least at Sizewell, Wylfa and Moorside while SMRs go through prototyping and approval.
September 15, 2022
Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£s
Regulate and you get money.
Compliance = money one way or another.
For a start, Ć la EU, it knocks out new and small businesses. They canāt afford compliance.
It is a tax gathering exercise.
Mafia-like.
Possibly a main reason why the EU is about to implode. Regulation creates stasis.
September 15, 2022
The price of oil is falling, and showing itself in petrol prices. Yesterday, a roadside filling station and garage near here was 155.9p. I also saw that the national inflation rate was down slightly, but it was down.
Capping prices is wrong – it just distorts behaviours leading to more complications which have to be addressed. The better solution is to remove taxes and all the other additions. We need the removal of more of those who have extreme eco views. They cannot be appeased to the benefit of most.
As an aside I believe Greenpeace are depositing massive rocks on the sea bed in the North Sea – they say the environment must be protected but they are quite happy to destroy it when it suits them, and they are of course financed and supported by many in government and elsewhere. Hypocrites and worse are all around us.
And as for the continued obsession with eco matters, my electricity supply company wrote to me to say it is intending to plant even more trees to save the planet. This obsession with trees is going to lead to food shortages and the ruination of the appearance of our countryside, another distortion of our world by fanatics supported by all manner of elites who wish to dictate how we must live.
September 15, 2022
Plant trees not houses I say.
I’ll write that on a placard and join with the eco protestors rallies.
On the other side I could write “Lower CO2 emissions, stop immigration” and see if they feel comfortable with that.
September 15, 2022
Agree 100%
And politicians without the guts and conviction to stand up and tell them how mad they are!
Actually though there is a great one in Australia and another one in Canadaā¦May they flourish.
And great news from Sweden.
September 15, 2022
I forgot to include the question about how many creatures, plants and insects living in and depending on grasslands and open areas are the eco warriors prepared to kill in order to get their way?
September 15, 2022
āHydrogen made using renewable electricity is not yet a commercial proposition and will need a vast new distribution network.ā
Nor is it ever likely to be ācommercialā outside a few very specialist areas unless the government plans to change the laws of physics that is? Given they are sticking to net zero perhaps the fools really do think they can do this! Why turn expensive and flexible, easily transmitted electric energy into far less valuable, expensive to store and inconvenient H2? Wasting a vast % of the energy in the process?
See The Hydrogen Illusion book by Samuel Furfari?
September 15, 2022
Green Hydrogen – generating electricity from wind/solar when it is not needed & then (very expensively) converting it into far less valuable hydrogen (far less useful, hard to store/transport hydrogen & wasting much of the energy on route too) makes very little sense to me.
Grey hydrogen converts methane into hydrogen again wasting much energy in the process. Just using the methane directly is more efficient & makes far more sense (outside perhaps a tiny few very specific areas). So where is the logic of the hydrogen red herring/cul-de-sac/ very inefficient energy storage agenda exactly?
September 15, 2022
LL :
Correct.
Or read āEnergy and the Hydrogen Economyā by Bossel and Eliasson :
https://afdc.energy.gov/files/pdfs/hyd_economy_bossel_eliasson.pdf
The wind produced electricity -> hydrogen (electrolysis) -> electricity is so inefficient that it requires 8 times the installed wind turbine capacity for any given amount of reliable power.
September 15, 2022
Just a reminder that tomorrow is a significant thirtieth anniversary.
The Guardian has remembered:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/sep/13/black-wednesday-brexit-sterling-crisis
“Black Wednesday cast a shadow that culminated in Brexit”
September 15, 2022
Indeed and relevant too. The fool John Major was trying to fix/contol the price of the Ā£ against the DM by government decree and interference in markets. Just as Truss, May and Boris did (or are doing) with energy/carbon and the net zero religion!
So will Truss bury the economy and party for three+ terms as Major did. If so will Truss actually say sorry as Major never did! Her & Kwasi’s solution does not look very market based to me! Kwasi clearly did not understand energy does he understand logic, economics and markets? We shall see.
September 15, 2022
Maastricht culminated in Brexit.
If only they’d not been so fast … they’d have got everything they wanted.
September 15, 2022
If they had realised how pissed off the majority of Brits were, they could have thrown Cameron a few trifles to placate and come home waving a bit of paper. He only gave way on holding the Ref due to being (correctly?) advised the Party would lose the GE otherwise.
September 15, 2022
Donna steady on there – now that we have taken back control we don’t have to have anything more to do with the evil empire so don’t upset yourself, europe with the EU is a big place and I’m sure they will be able to manage perfectly well without us. We should instead be looking to these new trade deals with countries far away like we were promised.
September 15, 2022
Governments repeatably call for āfree marketsā, competition and so on, then they are the first to jump in and stifle, distort and manipulate them. Every TAX, levy(Back Door Tax), BBC Licence Fee (an unavoidable tax as a result of JUST owning a viewing device) ā is just tax.
When tax is unequal and in the above cases discriminatory the result is un-intended consequences. Those that can least afford to pay, are subsidising those that can. That can never be right. A simple illustration people that cannot afford a new car have to pay for those that can by their taxes subsidising the purchase of electric vehicles. Low cost renewable energy is awarded with tax payer funding over an above the market price and there own costs plus profits, just because elsewhere energy is dearer.
If the Government levied all tax equally we would all pay less. As it stands every version of tax creates inequality that then requires fiddling around the edges to compensate those inequalities. That then distorts and creates further inequalities so needs more rebates. So on and so on. In combination the whole situation creates undue costs, expensive administration ā a self defeating object , demonstrating poor management.
September 15, 2022
There is nothing really new in this world.
The wind, as a direct motive power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour, for during a calm season the whole business of the country would be thrown out of gear. Before the era of steam engines, windmills were tried for draining mines; but though they were powerful machines, they were very irregular, so that in a long tract of calm weather the mines were drowned, and all the workmen thrown idle.
William Stanley Jevons, 1865
When the wind is too slow or too severe they do not work, all the time they are there working or not fossil fuel power stations are ticking over ready to cut in and keep the lights on as required
September 15, 2022
Dave, the lowest I’ve seen from wind turbine generation in the last few years is 0.6GW which occurred when the demand for energy was at its highest, 45GW. The critical time for the Grid this winter will be January/February when the UK sometimes sits under a blanket of stratus cloud that lasts for weeks, while winds from Norway to Morocco fall to almost zero. Then the contribution to our heating, lighting and industry from renewable energy will be overtaken by coal, what’s left of it. (Or the winds will blow — this is the UK after all — and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, the heavyweight papers will publish articles about the wonders of renewable energy, and the Gods of the Copybook headings will spin the revolver cylinder in readiness for the next Russian roulette gamble.)
There is a path from where we are — up the mucky estuary with no outboard motor — to Net Zero. Current plans for relying on renewables, and crossed fingers are not on that path and will lead to tragedy.
JF
September 15, 2022
OT
The Conservatives got it wrong again about reducing the bankers bonus cap. I have no problem with the cap being removed other than it would have been far better to remove EU laws that benefited the many not the few first. The cry out of touch will shouted loud and clear from the Labour benches.
September 15, 2022
Funny how it’s not inflationary whereas pay rises are.
September 15, 2022
I agree with much of what our host says about levies, the unreliable nature of renewables (along with the costs of making then reliable) and thus the need to allow further exploration for oil, natural gas and accessible coal; which he failed to mention, steel making needs coke, and you need coal to make coke, never mind being able to make coal-gas if push really comes to shove. But I must disagree with the following;
“The problem with price controls is they might put people off investing in more supply, deterred by lower and unpredictable returns from intervention.”
Quite the opposite surely, there appears to have been no cap placed upon profits, at least here in the UK, unless our host has seen sight of unpublished govt policy documents. The UK taxpayer is merely socializing, short-term, a proportion of end user costs, energy companies will still be paid for the total commercial costs of the energy provided. If anything energy companies now have certainty, indeed a known price guarantee, which should actually help boost investment, be that additional storage or exploration.
I do wonder if our hosts true concerns are a suspicion this is (or could facilitate) the beginning of the end for his Thatcher era privatization policies, at least with regards the energy sector.
During the late 1970s did BNOC, as a State owned entity, actually own any exploration or production drilling rigs, oil or gas processing facilities, before its ‘privatization’ [1] (and eventual take-over by BP), or did it simply award licenses to the commercial sector, licenses that allowed profits to be made by the commercial sector. I certainly seem to recall much mention of new North Sea drilling rigs, refineries etc. being built by commercial companies, not BNOC.
[1] a sell-off that appears to have been a spectacular failure, being well under subscribed at the time
Reply Sunak introduced a 25% windfall profits tax
September 15, 2022
@JR reply; Will that tax still remain, once this alternate scheme is in place, after all Truss has said there will be no windfall taxes. Even if it did remain, as a windfall on profits, surely one way of avoiding such a windfall tax would be to spend the windfall on re investment, exactly what many want, no?
September 16, 2022
Steel making doesn’t need coke, it needs a reducing agent and coke has been the most convenient material.
However, development is ongoing to use Hydrogen instead which is a more effective reducing agent.
There are other processes being explored so we’ll see what approaches win out.
September 16, 2022
@dixie; Tell me which of those technologies is available today, next week, next month, next year, in a decade; should the UK suspend steel making until whenever?
Coke is a proven, and what blast furnaces remain here in the UK, working or mothballed, are almost certainly designed to work with coke without modification, hence why there is a planning application pending for a new opencast coal mine in the NW, I think it’s sitting on some Ministers desk awaiting a decision… The only groups objecting are the usual green blob and local NIMBYs – much as with Fracking.
September 17, 2022
HYBRIT was used in a production process in 2021.
The cost of H2 production will decrease, the costs associated with coke will not.
September 17, 2022
@dixe; “The cost of H2 production will decrease,”
A bit like the promise with wind turbines, or electric cars then…
What should the UK steel makers do until ‘whenever’?
September 15, 2022
The EU energy policies described, windfall taxes, price controls, rationing, further investment in wind turbines and hydrogen is precisely those of BEIS and our Government, including ādemand managementā (viz rationing).
Empirical evidence shows that wind is expensive as well as intermittent. Using hydrogen as a means to store electricity requires an 8 fold increase in wind turbine capacity and cannot be used to replace natural gas. Both will lead to volatile pricing and rationing of power.
Furthermore, the impractical electrification of heating and transport will also lead to volatile pricing and rationing as the local grids cannot cope with the power required.
The correct way forward to reduce carbon emissions is nuclear power and natural gas for transport as well as heating, which can include increasing amounts of biogas and even green gas produced using nuclear power.
But no new nuclear is planned to come online until between 2043 and 2050, 8 years after the electricity decarbonisation date, and then only 25% of the power BEIS/the Government intends us to have, which BTW will be half our current usage despite a 10 million increase in population.
But of course BEIS/the Government knows all of this.
September 15, 2022
@OR; “[such polices are] precisely those of BEIS and our Government”
For goodness sake. The new PM and Cabinet have been in post just 10 days, and only 2 of those days have been available for the public display of politics, and with so many new Ministers I doubt many departments know what their current polices are, never mind us mere plebs. Cut some slack!
September 15, 2022
jerry :
In answer to Steve Brine, MP (Winchester Conservative), on the 8th of September in the HoC āUK Energy Costs Debateā, who asked the PM if net zero by 2050 was still the target:
Liz Truss, the PM, replied : āI am completely committed to net zero by 2050ā
In addition, Liz Truss has said : āWe will invest in renewable energy with vim and vigour, accelerating the deployment of wind, solar andāparticularly exciting, I thinkāhydrogen technologies.ā
Based upon these statements I donāt hold out much hope of a quick halt to the energy hole BEIS/the Government are digging.
September 15, 2022
There is no empirical evidence for catastrophic global warming or the existence of a climate emergency/breakdown.
The planet, having exited only recently from an ice age just 11,000 years ago, is far colder than average and CO2 is at historically low levels. In fact at the last ice age CO2 dropped to 180 ppm very close to the level at which plants cannot survive, 150 ppm, and in fact it would be better if CO2 levels were increased to 1000 ppm or more.
The proposed solution to a non-existent problem, renewable energy, will lead eventually to permanently high energy prices and rationing and the inevitable crash of our modern, civilised society.
The socialistsā forced āBuild Back Betterā transition from affordable, reliable fossil fuels to expensive and intermittent renewables is akin to their previous efforts of Agricultural Collectivisation and 5 Year Plans (Stalin) and the Great Leap Forward (Mao Zedong), both of which led to the deaths of millions of people.
The problem with socialism is that it is an ideology which believes in utopia and that it is always right. Consequently the ends always justifies the means and hence there is no reversal of policy no matter how bad the transition or even the final outcome.
September 15, 2022
Dear Sir John Redwood
I agree with you that price controls are not the way to tackle Inflation, although without the new Prime Minister’s Ā£2,500 cap in the short-term inflation will get a lot worse and Britain would end up with a nasty recession too.
Britain is facing one of the most severe set of economic challenges in the last 45 years: The Pound continues to depreciate as investors short it- driving down the price further and yet the Markets are getting jittery about Government borrowing. The time has come for a radical pro-growth and Inflation-busting solution that will stop international currency-traders driving down the value of Sterling: A return to the Gold Standard. There is Ā£200 billion worth of Gold in the Bank of England, so Ā£200 worth of currency could be backed up by that. We have, at present, Ā£95 billion of British Pound notes and coins in circulation so the “I promise to pay the bearer the sum of ten pounds” on a Ā£10 note is backed up by gold at today’s value. In addition, the remaining Ā£105 billion worth of Gold can be used to back up Sterling saved in Bank accounts, with a pledge from the Bank of England (put into law) to use any sales of Gold to buy more Gold to back Sterling. This will help arrest the slide in Sterling on the Currency markets and thus help eliminate imported Inflation. In addition, the Bank of England should be required, by law, to use the proceeds from the slow sale of Government bonds on the open market to buy up Gold- in order to back up the currency.
Once all that is done, the Bank of England can resume Quantitative Easing at Ā£100 billion a year to help stave off recession, using the proceeds to only buy Gold (or Gold-backed securities) from UK-based Gold Companies and Trading platforms. The economy will then grow, but Inflation will be kept in check and the additional Tax revenues arising can be used to reduce borrowing and cut taxes: Cutting VAT rapidly would be a first priority as that will help get Inflation down and put money into people’s pockets.
Please impress upon the new Prime Minister, Liz Truss the importance of getting Britain back on the Gold Standard as soon as possible. Conservative re-election chances may well depend on it. Britain’s experiement with fiat currency for the last fifty years has been disastrous, as it leaves the British Pound Sterling wholly at the mercy of the Markets.
September 15, 2022
Gov does not want you to have cheap and abundance energy, they are doing everything they can to avoid it, which leads to this question. Myterious increase in deaths seen across Europe in younger people as Lifelogic pointed out the other day, majority of gov service are not working as they should at time when you have Ai computerization, they point to over population which they control. Russia and Turkey are having a brust up with Europe over grain shipments out of Ukraine going to Europe instead of going to poor countries as in the past, Russia cannot send any grain as in past to poor countries because of sanction, the two countries have come up with a plan so the grain only goes to poor countries from now on, so the question is why.
I pointed out the other day about decrease in the world popluation to under 6.5 billion people in 22 years time, No energy, no food, no housing, in other words the things you need for life are not allowed by gov”s in the western world only, 20% of kids now coming out of schools now identify with LBGTQ which is depopluation when forty years ago it was the opposite way round.
September 16, 2022
More and more gay couples are acquiring babies or having the services of donor sperm to have a family.
September 16, 2022
The elite will not need the plebs;AI,robots,other forms of advanced automation will service their needs.
September 15, 2022
JR “It is necessary to help people on low income with bills, or better to help them get jobs with decent incomes.”
Ok, John, please tell us what is your definition of ‘low income’ – Is it nationwide?
If the definition of low income is the NLW for over 23-year-olds. Ā£9.50 ph x 37.5 hours (a full-time job) = Ā£18525.00 pa. Then how much tax, national insurance, nest, do you think this person should contribute? If they are 25 they can get top-ups in income support do you know what that currently is? Is it equivalent to the tax and NI they pay? Why create work and take it in the first place?
If Ā£20,000 pa is still a low income, the government takes a total per year of Ā£4689.50 (23%) from this person’s employee and employer taxes + workplace pension. The Employer’s extra portion is Ā£1531.02. Plus a set aside for SSP/SMP/SPL + associated holiday pay.
What is your definition of a ‘decent’ income for a single, a couple, a single with child/ren, a couple with child/ren?
If Mum or Dad takes years out to look after her children, why can’t she transfer all her personal allowance to her partner, husband for the duration of her not using it?
September 15, 2022
Dear Sir John, you are right that the proposed price cap gives the wrong signals to consumers. But over the next two years, consumers will still be paying much more than they are used to, so we are unlikely to respond by using more power . It is more important to help people cope with the current emergency.
Looking beyond the next election, however, the emergency is just a taste of things to come and all Parties will be deceiving us if they do not sell out the policy implications for future prices. Under the plan for net Zero 2050, gas will be phased out for home use and restricted to balancing the electricity grid, which will rely heavily on offshore wind and new nuclear. Yet the indexed unit price of Hinkley C electricity is nearly 4 times the proposed cap and offshore wind perhaps 3 times. And the capped unit price of gas is a third of capped electricity.
According to the back of my envelope, that means that an all-electric household can expect to see its bills treble in real terms by 2050 and one that relies on gas for heating and cooking will see bills quintuple from the cap. Even on an heroically optimistic projection, real income per head will double over the next 28 years.
Will Government and MPs committed to Net Zero 2050 come clean about this when they debate the new cap or will they all end up relying on short-term fixes until the 2028-9 election and then the election after that? A rhetorical question I fear.
September 15, 2022
I read a report the other day from the Fed in the USA about QE and QT and how it has nothing to do with inflation and they are right, the reason you have high inflation is because of gov action on food and energy and giving money out at high street banks to companies and people over the pandemic, the money at the central bank does not cause inflation, it is just used as a signal to high street banks on policy, well they did say may cause 25 pips on rates but that all. These are things educated people come up with to show they needed, loads and loads of paperwork that are meanless.
September 15, 2022
āThe Prime Minister announced the headlines of a solution for the energy crisis.ā
There is only one single cause for this energy crisis.
It is because a false claim, for which there is no empirical evidence, that we are facing a catastrophic breakdown of the climate caused by anthropogenic CO2 emissions, has led to Parliament enacting the CCA and the Net Zero by 2050 legislations.
Even though we are fortunate to have an abundance of cheap and reliable fossil fuels in this country, coal, gas and oil, Parliament has deliberately caused their shortage, and hence rising prices, before their replacement of affordable renewable energy and storage was existing, with even the President of COP26 filming last year his triggering of the explosive demolition of a fossil fuel power station (SSE official video) :
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1429456184902393858/pu/vid/720×720/JwPnpycxEiyBmqVJ.mp4?tag=12
September 15, 2022
The gas man cometh.
I see the new boss of Shell is to be a chemical engineer currently in charge of their gas business. It appears they have understood what is necessary for the next few years at least.
September 15, 2022
Just subsidise the unit price of wholesale gas at April 2022 cost and decouple the price of electricity generated by other means. Immediate fall in price for consumer and business and easier to withdraw when appropriate.
September 15, 2022
The real problem is a gas shortage – caused by bad political decisions, including provoking Putin while he had command of so much of Europe’s gas.
So.
Alleviating the cost of living crisis is not going to avert blackouts and rationing of energy.
It is right, however, to cut tax at least by the windfall amount that has been taken on the back of price rises.
It is also time we started telling the truth about petrol and diesel tax – that it is @ well over 100% of the wholesale price and not 70% as oft stated. Say you buy an item for Ā£10 and Ā£6 of this is tax… I make that 150% of the wholesale price, not 60% (which would already by outrageous enough) Then there is the watered down petrol in the form of E10, so you have to visit garages more often to pay more tax.
September 15, 2022
The reason why this government didn’t do something to the tax thresholds was more abouts politics than targeting financial help for those who need it most.
The government wants to keep everyone sweet and on their side for the general election.
September 15, 2022
Mr. Redwood – is your government ever going to do ANYTHING about these Channel crossings? No doubt the people coming across will get instant access to medical treatment when needed, while those of us who have paid for the NHS for 50 years suffer two year waiting lists.
I cannot wait for the next election.
If Farage puts a party together again with one simple promise – ‘I will turn the boats around’ – then, just as with Brexit, he will take more than half your vote. For heaven’s sake, get on to the new Home Secretary and tell her to DO SOMETHING. Turn the boats back – make it clear they will not be allowed to land in the UK. You’ll only have to do it once and the message will soon go out – ‘no point paying for a boat ride, they are turning them back’.
September 15, 2022
Don’t hold your breath whilst waiting for the useless Conservatives to stop immigration.
We know that Labour/Liberal prefer 3rd world immigrants, but it’s been apparent for quite a while now that the Conservatives prefer them as well.
Not many 3rd world immigrants in Scotland or Wales.
September 15, 2022
Don’t forget the Government are waving in four times as many legal immigrants as the illegals.
September 15, 2022
By the next election it will all be over – Every illegal coming from Africa, the Middle East and East Europe, will have arrived !
September 15, 2022
People will be sleeping outside in all manner of situations. Cardboard City will be considered trivial by then. It is this sort of deprivation that starts revolts.
September 16, 2022
Not even close! Never ending rivers will come until they collapse the economy and probably society.
September 15, 2022
Off topic, the UK has written to the EU saying that it will continue to unilaterally apply extended grace periods on EU mandated checks on goods coming into Northern Ireland, as reported by multiple sources here:
https://tinyurl.com/u5hxhrzf
It should have been able to reassure the EU that it had set up an alternative system of export controls to protect the EU Single Market from the carriage of unacceptable goods across the open land border, but unfortunately it couldn’t say that because it hasn’t set up any such alternative system even though it could easily do so:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/08/28/the-public-sector-could-save-some-energy-to-help-us-out/#comment-1337699
“Yet as repeatedly pointed out any significant threat to the integrity of the EU Single Market could easily have been countered by UK export controls over the goods flowing north to south, and indeed there was already an established system for licensing exports of sensitive goods such as arms, which could have readily been adapted for this additional purpose.”
September 15, 2022
The quality of our leaders in the West has been, for some time, mediocre at best.
The EU, led by the unelected Commission, have probably the worst set of leaders we have ever seen. VDL’s record as german defence minister wouldn’t get her a job boiling kettles – spending nearly all their money on maternity rights payments, creches and such while signing awful procurement contracts a child could see through.
These people still want to lead us to a green Utopia, ignoring the common sense reasons to do otherwise. Sadly, there are too many people of similar quality in the HOC. CCHQ has to take responsibility for this – they keep pushing Lib Dems and climate nutters in as candidates – the root cause of these problems needs to be analysed – and it is with candidate selection. The next head of CCHQ must be a true Conservative.
September 15, 2022
Sir John,
Off topic, but the news in the Daily Telegraph: ‘NHS staff to walk in front of Queen’s coffin’ has caused such disappointment and consternation, anger even, at this obviously political, last-minute move (see the Comments section).
The unifying nature of King Charles III’s demeanour and behaviour after his mother’s death, his excellent address the very next day broadcast just before the service in St. Paul’s Cathedral open to the general public, and the warmth of well-wishers towards him, have all been shot to pieces.
We, our late Queen’s subjects, have to know who authorised this decision. To have just one section of society favoured over all others seems highly suspicious, and will cause unnecessary speculation:
Was it His Majesty who requested this sudden change in proceedings, that NHS staff be involved in this most solemn of occasions, watched in all countries around the World?
If so, was His Majesty ‘leaned on’ by a manipulative in-law, perhaps?
If it was His Majesty’s decision, does this show that he has already ‘been bought’ by a union, too weak to stick to what had been planned for years for Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral?
Was it the new Government’s decision?
I could go on.
Sir John, If you are able to comment on this I, and I think most of His Majesty Charles III’s subjects, would be very grateful.
Thank you.
Mary M.
September 15, 2022
I didn’t know that. It is a moral offence.
The NHS has become a Socialist- woke, political influence and a political player in its own right (as we see with the political exercise that is Covid) and for it to have wormed its way into such a solemn and sacred occasion is OFFENSIVE. This is the cancer of Socialism at work right in front of our very eyes and the Tory government will no doubt endorse for an easy life
September 16, 2022
16 September 2022.
Thank you, Sir John, for uploading my comment above. I hope in due course that the reasons for this last-minute alteration to the state funeral will be explained, especially to those who have been badly let down by the NHS over the past two and a half years, and who therefore don’t idolise it in quite the same way (as perhaps those who have never had to use the NHS idolise it!).
It gets worse:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11217507/NHS-staff-join-Princes-William-Harry-accompanying-Queens-casket-Westminster-Abbey.html
I’m not sure I can stomach watching any of the televised state funeral on Monday, now that it has been politicised. Such high hopes after the address of King Charles III on Friday evening have been dashed as we witness helplessly the capture of the Monarch and the Heir Apparent.
Mary M.
September 16, 2022
re-NHS in Procession.
Well some of us have been noting the NHS transformed into a religion, obey do not question, dues to be paid in full.
September 15, 2022
And in other news
Whatās the point of the UN when one of its members, one of the five permanent security council member, openly disregards the GenĆØve Convention and the UNsā own International Law of Armed Conflict by targeting a countries power & energy supply ie nuclear power & reservoir dams ā¦.why havenāt the UK, who abides by these rules, attempted to get Russia kicked out of the UNā¦alternatively we should leave this corrupt, bureaucratic, woke organisation
September 15, 2022
I probably broadly agree with you Sir John.
Certainly the important thing to do is increase supply of energy. This can not be done using sun and wind so we must use our own fossil fuels.
The green levies were ridiculous. Removing VAT from fuel would also help.
I do not know what this ‘carbon tax’ you talk about is. If it is a tax on petrol and diesel then of course it is raising the costs of distribution, thus increasing the cost of living to everyone. Perhaps it also increases the costs of production.
So that should also be scrapped.
I can understand your argument that capping prices is a disincentive to investment, though if it is clear that the government would continue to compensate suppliers for their loss of profit that might help.
Surely the main point here is somehow to make it clear to investors that we are now keen to encourage production from our fossil fuels (and from nuclear). That we have given up the ridiculous carbon neutral religion.
I am a state pensioner who still needs my petrol fueled car but there are also people in work who are genuinely struggling.
It isn’t that we are going to go mad wasting energy because the price is capped. Nor are we going to waste food, or buy unnecessary frivolous items if the prices go down.
So I do not agree with what you say about capping prices reduces the role of price in reducing demand. We are only ‘demanding’ what we genuinely need to survive. It really is that bad Sir John.
September 15, 2022
This is encouraging. Until Liz Truss became PM we had a Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change, whose responsibilities were listed on the government website in this order:
Net Zero Strategy, carbon budgets, low carbon generation, energy retail markets, oil and gas, security of supply, electricity and gas wholesale markets and networks, international energy, climate change and climate finance, energy security, including resilience, hydrogen, nuclear, fusion, industrial decarbonisation
Now energy is to be handled by Jacob Rees-Mogg. There is now a ‘Minister for Climate’:
https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers/minister-of-state-minister-for-climate#responsibilities
His responsibilities? He doesn’t yet have any, it seems.
I hope Ms Truss leaves it like that.
September 15, 2022
So much to do and so little parliamentary time to do it. Swivel serpents meanwhile running wild without proper governance and oversight.
Sir J I suggest Parliament sits until Xmas without the customary recess, there are too many urgent issues to fix.Ā¹
September 15, 2022
re “It is necessary to help people on low income with bills”, I would say its necessary to help people largely existing on savings too, including pensions, those convalescing after a major operations, and so on, without forcing them to spend all of their savings before they get any help from the state at all.
we need to incentivise “doing the right thing” and part of that is incentivising saving, at the moment many of the state interventions incentivise exactly the opposite behaviour.
September 16, 2022
I agree Iain!
September 15, 2022
Surely the first thing needed is to reverse the insane decision to outlaw domestic gas boilers. Let the market free and let the people enjoy the benefits of the infinitely more efficient gas boilers of the present and future.
Our old housing stock – whether or flat conversions – cannot be adequately insulated to make heat pumps practical. We should all freeze to death, or starve to death first as for the forseeable future decades, net zero is completely unaffordable except for the wealthy elites.
What people want is domestic heat and light and cooking fuel that is affordable. Why is that simple message so difficult for parliamentarians to understand? Is it because their energy bills and their highly subsidised Westminster restaurants and canteens are largely paid by the taxpayer?
September 16, 2022
Correction (l.3) ‘Our old housing stock ā whether houses or flat conversions’
And btw – I do realize that John Redwood (in sharp contrast with his colleagues) has for decades been urging successive governments to remember that the priority for most people is to have inexpensive heating, hot water and cooking fuel in winter. This trumps all ‘environmental’ arguments.
September 15, 2022
It’s a record
43 posts from Jerry
Every one a winner.
September 16, 2022
a new form of gerrymandering?
September 16, 2022
@Peter2; “43 posts from Jerry”
And all moderated, approved and published by our host.
Just what is your problem?!… š
September 16, 2022
I’m bored by your endless arguing.
You would argue black was white.
Nearly every post is against anything anyone else says.
September 16, 2022
@Peter2; To bad, if you don’t like reading my comments then don’t read then, simple! Is that so hard?
PS, The only person who gets to censor me is our host.
September 17, 2022
Well then, at least be try to be less aggressive and rude to others on here.
Instead of being a keyboard warrior Jerry, try to imagine you are talking to people face to face.
September 17, 2022
@Peter2; If our host considers my comments overly aggressive or rude, he has a Delete key. But it seems to me he, unlike you, understands the difference between aggregation or gratuitous rudeness and simple robust debate.
“a keyboard warrior”
Yes, that is exactly what YOU are.
“try to imagine you are talking to people face to face.”
LOL, take your own advice! If you acted in person as you do here, trying to disrupt others conversations, simply because you want them to talk about netball rather than football or ruby, some would no doubt give you something real to complain about (not that I would condone such an act), never mind finding yourself barred by the Landlord!
If you don’t like my style of comments, learn to do as I more often than not do when I see a comment from @Dom, skip past, move on.
Whatever…
September 17, 2022
Just be less angry.
When people on here call you “bloody rude” then it’s time for you to calm down.
PS netball etc …
what on earth are you on about!