UK Energy Crisis

never thought i would ever be defending thatcher but she cant be blamed for the nearly 30 years of bad investment and lack of regulation from both torys and labour goverments

Ultimately the main cause of the problem here is the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has lead to the massive increase in the price of gas which the government cannot be blamed for. However there are many factors that are making this crisis much worse:

For starters comparing support packages that have been put in place across Europe, the other G7 nations have been more generous in what they have come up with

Germany: £50 bn
Italy: £40 bn
France: £40 bn
UK: £25 bn

In 2010 when The Conservatives came to power they were told that the UK's gas storage should be increased, for years they did nothing then in 2017 Centrica shut down its largest gas storage unit off the coast of Yorkshire, which had enough capacity to supply 10 days worth of gas, as it had become too expensive to run without Government support. This resulted in a 70% decrease in the UK's gas storage capacity which is now equal to 2% of annual demand, comapared with 25 to 35 % in Europe's four largest storage facilities.

Also in 2013 Cameron told aides to "cut the green crap" ending onshore wind projects, solar subsidies and energy efficiency schemes which has compounded our reliance on Gas.

The UK has some of the least energy efficient homes in Western Europe, with heat loss 3 times that of Germany



A lot of this will be down to the fact that so many of our homes were built 100 yrs or more ago but a lack of insulation thanks to cutting the green crap will compound this.

Successive Governments from Major to Johnson have failed to build Nuclear reactors at the rate of Thatcher's government

From 1990 to 99 Governments relaxed rules around energy supply resulting in dozens of new suppliers, when those small suppliers went bust, their customers were moved to the larger more established ones. The problem was that those larger suppliers had already secured a price for their existing customers in advance. What they hadn’t done was plan for huge increases in the number of households suddenly added to their books, so they had to buy additional energy at higher prices. The extra cost of buying energy for millions of people at wholesale prices has been added to the standing charge, the fixed daily amount we all pay our energy suppliers, no matter how much we use.

I think half the problem is finding suitable sites for Nuclear reactors knowing wherever you try to build one, you will face opposition from Eco groups and the same could be said with homebuilding as well. With probably a fair chunk of our housing being 100 years old, it's difficult to see how we haven't upgraded that housing stock to today's standard over the years. and knowing how far we are behind the rest of Europe in terms of support packages I can see the only way they can get that money back would likely end up with Council Tax increases over the next few years.

A dairy farmer on Anglesey,his current contract just expired it was£15k a year,new 2 year contract £40k a year.WOW.

^ He needs other fuel sources.
Like getting a wind turbine on the farm if planning permission is allowed
Or solar panels on the cow shed.
Or get a methane gas generator for all that cows..t.

^ Truss has already said we want our farms producing food not solar panels

Is that the same Liz Truss who has signed trade deals with Australia & New Zealand that will damage UK farmers? Or the one who wants more renewables but not the infrastructure to enable it. Or maybe the one who celebrates the free press in foreign countries but denied access to hustings last week to the Politics Joe lobby journalist “because we don’t like the tone of your reports”

^My understanding of that remark was that she was against whole fields of solar panels. Not just a few panels on the roof of a barn.
She was just playing to the gallery of rural Tory voters, where she stressed that she prefered farm animals on these fields.

(28-08-2022 11:13 )Charlemagne Wrote:  ^My understanding of that remark was that she was against whole fields of solar panels. Not just a few panels on the roof of a barn.
She was just playing to the gallery of rural Tory voters, where she stressed that she prefered farm animals on these fields.

Oh I agree that she’s a duplicitous bitch if that’s what you mean Where the heck does she think solar farms will go though if not in fields?

(28-08-2022 11:13 )Charlemagne Wrote:  ^My understanding of that remark was that she was against whole fields of solar panels. Not just a few panels on the roof of a barn.
She was just playing to the gallery of rural Tory voters, where she stressed that she prefered farm animals on these fields.

In a field near my house they have sheep grazing quite happily among the solar panels, to be fair it's not crammed with panels, but the sheep still hang out nearby.