If you live in the UK, the problems you're experiencing at the moment are most likely a result of greed.

You're freezing in your house because the Tories won't tax billion-pound energy giants.

Your Christmas gift is delayed in the post because Royal Mail bosses who make £758m in profits believe that a measly 2% pay rise is enough for their posties.

You might not be able to visit your family over Christmas because although train companies can hand over £500m to shareholders, they just can't seem to find the money to pay railway staff fairly.

Blame the greedy.

Corruption Scandal in Ohio going on right now!

Private Sector Good Public Sector Bad

According to textbook definitions,  the “private sector” it is that part of the economy that is owned and controlled by individuals and businesses rather than by government. As such, those individuals and businesses are entitled to pocket ALL profits made, minus taxes paid to government.

According to neoliberal economic theory, a theory much championed by Rishi Sunak and previous Conservative governments, this leads to cost effectiveness and maximised efficiency throughout the economy.

Jolly good! This is very much mainstream economic theory and has been ever since Margaret Thatcher was PM. But what Conservatives (and Labour) never do is follow through on their   economic beliefs! 

If those individuals and businesses in the private sector are entitled to ALL the profit they make, then it follows in my mind that they are also liable for any costs they incur. And it also follows that if they mess up, miscalculate or over-stretch themselves financially, then they should bare ALL of the costs of their own failures.

But that isn’t what happens. Remember the banking crisis? The greedy banks over-reached themselves, lending out too much money on bad assets. We the taxpayer had to bail them out. The last ten years of falling standards of living are in large part due to the Austerity policies introduced by Tory governments to help shore up the privately owned financial sector of the economy.

Nothing has changed. Yesterday, were heard the good news that household yearly energy costs will fall by approximately £150. Whoopee! The bad news is that standing charges energy companies can impose will be allowed to rise and might wipe out the above savings.

Only two of the six big suppliers of energy to the UK are British owned. In 2020, these companies did very well for themselves.

“The UK’s ‘Big Six’ energy companies made over £3billion in profit in 2020."  (Big Issue: 04/02/22)

Hardly a struggling market you would of thought. Yet our Tory government is charging every one of us for those PRIVATE companies that failed in a business where it seems ridiculously easy to make huge profits.

“The secret £200 bill you’ll pay for failed energy firms” Telegraph: 09/0422)

Sunak repeatedly tells us that inflation is the main enemy of the economy yet he raised the standing charge by a massive 80% last year.

“Ofgem refuses to change ‘unjust’ standing charge policy, which has seen fees rocket as much as 80%"  (inews: 18/08/22)

And this year we have this

“Standing charges will rise again…"  (moneysavingexpert: 25/08/23)

The decision to raise standing charges can be laid at the door of government, as it is the government agency Ofgem that  “takes decisions on price controls and enforcement.”  As Martin Lewis rightly tells us,:

“The level of standing charges and unit rates, and the split between the two of them, is set by Ofgem.”  (moneysavingexpert: 04/07/23)

 And as usual in this topsy-turvy world of Tory economic policy it is perfectly acceptable for foreign firms to make huge profits from the British consumer, but not all right for them to take a hit when businesses fail.

who would you say are the most ethical energy suppliers in the uk please?

It depends what you’re looking for in a supplier and what your ethical priorities are. Octopus Energy generally do well according to most metrics, as do Ecotricity, Good Energy and 100Green.

Ethical consumer have a good run-down of the various ethical issues involved in production and consumption here, and the good shopping guide have a comparison of various companies and tariffs here. I’d recommend doing your own research and deciding according to your own priorities.

I want the energy companies to know that words mean things.

A “cap” implies it will not go up any further. Not that it keeps going up and up and up and...

2nd December 2022 // Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel visited Swedenenergy and Energiforsk. Swedenergy is a special interest group for companies that supply, distribute, sell, and store energy while Energiforsk is a research and knowledge institute that advances and coordinates energy research. These visits were part of a number of energy related engagements, likely as a response to the ongoing energy crisis facing Europe and the couple’s shared interest in climate change. 

Powerlands

On this week’s Making Contact, we feature an extended interview with Ivey Camille Manybeads Tso, a queer Diné filmmaker and director of the award-winning documentary Powerlands. Powerlands traces how multinational energy corporations extract resources and profits while displacing and harming Indigenous communities around the world. The film follows Indigenous activists in Navajo Nation,…

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Energy firms double down on investigating customers who cut back on electricity to afford bills

Energy firms have doubled down on a policy to send engineers out to investigate customers who cut back on their gas and electricity use in a bid to save money on their bills.

Energy UK, the industry body that represents the majority of providers, said companies were “right” to investigate people this winter if their energy use went down, because it could be due to theft.

It comes after i revealed how EDF sent members of its revenue protection team to a vulnerable woman who has cut back on the energy she uses because of rising bills.

If the courses be departed from, the ends will change.

“Come in, -- come in! and know me better, man! I am the Ghost of Christmas Present. Look upon me! You have never seen the like of me before!” ― Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

MORE than half of people living in England’s most deprived areas are spending less on food and essentials amid the cost-of-living crisis, official figures suggest.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have exposed divisions across the country in how people are being affected by soaring prices.

People living in England’s most deprived districts were almost twice as likely to report cutting down on food bills and other essentials.

One in 10 people living in the poorest areas said they had also fallen behind on their electricity or gas bills and more than three-fifths said they had struggled to meet the payments in the latest period in November.

Foodbank charity the Trussell Trust said more support was needed from the government to help the poorest get by in the months before benefits are increased in April.

“In the last six months, 320,000 people turned to Trussell Trust foodbanks for the first time and this number is likely to rise.”

As Dickens wrote in A Christmas Carol; “Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead, but if the courses be departed from, the ends will change.”

The right is attempting to change the meaning of the word "competition" in relation to business in Ireland, specifically in the energy sector. It's the snap back response to questions about why energy prices cannot be capped and reduced, that answer being "competitive prices. All energy companies must charge the same".

Now, I studied business in secondary school. I know what competition for businesses is meant to be when it comes to capitalism. This isn't competition, this is a monopoly. This is price fixing. And I thought this was illegal.

As DTE Energy pushes for an 8.8% rate hike, the utility giant and it executives and lobbyists have donated to the campaigns of nearly every state legislator in Michigan. Of the state’s 148 senators and representatives, 138 have received campaign contributions tied to DTE Energy, totaling more than $1 million, according to the Energy and Policy Institute, a fossil fuel industry watchdog group. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has also received $235,900 from DTE Energy and its executives and lobbyists, dating back to when she was a state lawmaker. In a July fundraising blitz, Whitmer received nearly $40,000 from DTE executives. Whitmer appoints the three members of the Michigan Public Service Commission, which will decide on the company’s proposed 8.8% rate hike for electricity and gas in November. The commission approved four rate hikes since 2015. The donations come at a time when environmental justice activists, consumer groups, and clean energy advocates are calling out DTE Energy for its high rates, chronic power outages, and reliance on fossil fuels. State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, has called for a ban on political donations from regulated utilities like DTE Energy. Rahbi returned a total of $400 in donations from DTE’s political action committee in 2017 and 2019 and hasn’t received any contributions since.  ...

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Kim Stafford: How to make money

Sell munitions to nations at war. Sell relief supplies  for distribution at war. Fly diplomats around to talk  about war. Pay speech-writers to equivocate about war.  Drill for oil to burn the sky. Design a whole economy based on oil. Talk about energy independence instead of climate chaos. Invest heavily in the short view. Pump sugar into the food chain. Flavor the food chain  with sugar,…

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