Labour promises -

[asperity]

If it's true that the smoke from cooking fires in the third world is the problem, then surely the solution is to ensure that these countries get clean cooking fuel i.e. natural gas and electricity as soon as possible.

[observer]

We've been here before with Labour: The decision to sign up to the EU free movement Treaty - only 15,000 would come here they said at the time. The revised contract with GPs - knock on effects now being seen on our A&Es. Now direct interference in the phoney energy market, that they have loaded with onerous responsibilities and expense to divert to green energy production, to the point where we can't supply for our needs and blackouts are a distinct possibility in the future in any case.  They appear only capable of dealing with issues at a superficial (vote winning) level, rather than addressing the strategic fundementals. We simply can't meet green energy targets without compromising supply generally - so let's forget it for now. We need to develop an independent and secure UK energy supply and production system, controlled by the British State in the interests of the British people. So, we need more power stations supplied by those resources we have in abundance under our feet - coal and fracked gas, in order to get us over the hump and ensure the lights stay on, and the price is stabilised, and if this delays the green agenda - so be it.

[Lt Kije]

It  just highlights what most people knew when it was first proposed ,but privatisation of gas & electricity  really has cost the British people dearly & is probably one of the main reasons why the economy is being stifled  because  its price is severely reducing the disposable income of every family in the land.

 

Gas & electricity should have been kept as a not for profit utility.

 

I agree with you Davy, they should have been kept as not for profit utility's

[observer]

... and Labour failed to re-nationalise it.

[Lt Kije]

Don't look to UKIP because they won't either.

[observer]

Certainly don't, but they have bigger fish to fry !

[Evil Sid]

Hopefully on non carbon producing cookers.

[observer]

Seems the Tories have given away our Companies to foreign owners; and the Lib-Labs are giving our jobs away to foreign workers - so a choice of a rock or a hard place!

[Lt Kije]

I give the job to the right person Obs, regardless of colour of skin or accent.

 

Our jobs indeed??

 

 

[asperity]

Seems the Tories have given away our Companies to foreign owners; and the Lib-Labs are giving our jobs away to foreign workers - so a choice of a rock or a hard place!

The boom years for foreign buyouts of British companies were 2000 to 2010, the Bair/Brown years. I think you're getting confused with privatisation.

[observer]

No Asp; I WAS thinking of privatisation, as this makes foreign take-overs possible. Kije: Of course they're "our jobs", assuming you have a shred of national interest left in you.

[asperity]

No Obs, what you said was that the Tories have given away British companies. Nobody has actually given them away, they have been bought by foreigners since the last Labour government made legislation making it easy.

 

Just waiting for the "New Labour were Tories in disguise" line now :lol:

[observer]

Errm, if a company is "privatised"; shares become available on the stock exchange; those shares can then be purchased by anyone, including "foreign" interests.

[asperity]

By George I do believe Obs has got it!!! That's how a free market operates. Someone has something to sell, someone else has money to spend and VOILA!!

[Lt Kije]

Asp

Geoffrey Howe made it easier for Foreign Companies to buy British ones

 

[asperity]

Thats as may be, but it doesn't alter the fact that the boom time for foreign buy outs of British companies was while the last Labour government was ruining the country or that they introduced legislation making it easier.

 

The jury is still out as to whether foreign ownership is good or bad overall.

[observer]

No Asp, I "got it" a long time ago; and looking into the future, all the signs are that national control of ones strategic resources and industries will be essential to economic survival and security. It's already happening; the Chinese are buying up US firms and large tracts of land for food and mineral production in Africa. As climate change, and political insecurity throughout the world make resources harder to secure and increasingly expensive; ownership will become of major importance. So far from privatising our essential assets, we should be ensuring control of them and striving for self sufficiency in all areas of the economy.

[Bazj]

No Asp; I WAS thinking of privatisation, as this makes foreign take-overs possible. Kije: Of course they're "our jobs", assuming you have a shred of national interest left in you.

 

Kije has no national pride. He is a European and as I have said before "A collaborator".... that is why he confuses freedom fighters and resistance fighters and terrorists

[observer]

I know !

[asperity]

Its too late to pull up the drawbridge and become self sufficient. Like it or not, to survive in the world today we have to be in the global marketplace (and being stuck in the EU isn't helping us), which involves us buying foreign companies and vice versa. Your Little England ideas would be a disaster.

[observer]

Great Britain actually Asp ! In a future world of scarce resources, control over those resources will be vital to the wellbeing of our population. Energy prices are what kicked off this topic for a start.

[Lt Kije]

Collaborator, Baz, what do you mean by it?

 

Obs, scarce resources, the UK does not have a lot of them, The UK has always been a trading nation, As Aspa says little Englanders are dreaming. We have to trade.!!!

[asperity]

As Lt Kije says, we need to trade with the outside world to survive. We don't have sufficient natural resources to go it alone.

[Davy51]

Thats as may be, but it doesn't alter the fact that the boom time for foreign buy outs of British companies was while the last Labour government was ruining the country or that they introduced legislation making it easier.

 

The jury is still out as to whether foreign ownership is good or bad overall.

 

When the company i worked for was taken over by a large German company ,everything was stripped to the bone & the agencies were used to provide extra labour which at times was in massive quantities even though the core workforce had suffered redundancies . All the agency staff employed from the takeover were East Europeans so no English unemployed benefited  from the temporary work on offer.

[observer]

Kije/Asp, I think I used the term "strive for self sufficiency"; of course we'll continue to "trade"; but will retain control of our essential economic assets such as energy source and production, and maximise indigenous production. Churchill's only real worry during the war, was the U-Boat threat, which demonstrated our reliance on imports.  As global political and climate events begin to threaten those imports, rather than U-Boats, we'll be in a similar situation in the future, unless we're prepared. With the Chinese now demanding more meat and dairy products, there will be an opportunity (EU red tape allowing), for food exports in the short term, but eventually this growing demand will increase prices generally, thus impacting on our people. Russian and Greek millionaires are now buying up high end housing in the UK, as a "safe investment" and no doubt a bolt hole for themselves, but this impacts on house prices generally; so again affects our population. "The market" can't protect us against the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, I'm afraid, as evidenced by the financial and energy sector in recent years.