Telegraph article: Project Fear was right all along

I’m not suggesting that all electricity should be priced at the lower cost of Nuclear / Renewables, but rather that there should be a separation of costs per generation type that should be reflected in the price to the consumer.
As a purely illustrative example let’s say that a consumer uses 100 units of power, and that in general, the National Grid draws half its power from Renewables / Nuclear and the other half from Gas generation. Purely for a mathematical exercise, let’s surmise that renewables cost 10p per unit and Gas costs 30p. So the consumer could be charged 50 units at 10p and 50 units at 30p which equates to £20 in total, instead of the current system of 100 units at 30p which comes to £30. One can see immediately the substantial difference in the bill.

I would love to see the above calculation re-done with whatever the actual generation costs are, and also to reflect the average percentage drawn upon by National Grid from Nuclear / Renewables versus Gas.
Somehow I still reckon that there would be a substantial reduction in cost to the end user.

Has it? The ERG Group should not really belong in the Tory Party as they are so extreme right, but they hang in there and they have removed all the decent politicians from the centre and left. They wouldn’t stand a chance if they were to stand for election on their own, so they hang on and make trouble.

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The reality is a tragedy but how Britain appears to the world may not be a bad thing if it finally commits to the pages of history the old fantasy of Land of Hope and Glory.

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As someone who lives in the UK (but has just arrived in mid France for two months, thank God), I’ve decided that Brexit isn’t the main problem. It’s today’s ultra capitalism, when bosses feel they can vote themselves a huge bonus while telling Mick Lynch that times are too tough for a pay rise. We had this before in the late 1920s and it took leaders who hadn’t been bought to put it right. Sadly lacking in London and dare I say, worldwide? Capitalism is currently not working for enough people. They feel it and they expressed it by voting for Brexit. The Italians could be next. Rejoining wouldn’t make a lot of difference, because the Europeans are under the same financial yoke. Although I have to say, being in would have saved us quite a bit on bringing the cat. Who can now stay a month longer than my lovely British partner. Hmmm.

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Welcome to la belle France! Nothing like the perspective gained by seeing UK from a distance.

You mentioned my crush, Mick Lynch and your comments are very valid. Key word ‘enough’ people. John Maynard Keynes argued capitalism has a tendency to boom and bust economic cycles that lead to periods of mass unemployment. Seems we know where this is going…

Free market capitalism, although an ideal concept seems to work, in practice not so perfect. ‘Takes money to make money’ isn’t so great for those with little or no money. These things only become apparent in practice over time. As the ideal of Communism, which we now also realise doesn’t work. I’m also a bit concerned about democracy but as there isn’t a better alternative yet, let’s hope it stays for now.

Now you have arrived in the land of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, I wish you a very happy sojourn. And that your cat doesn’t run away and apply for asylum.

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I think I’d enjoy going for a beer or two with Mick Lynch. I don’t agree with his stance on Brexit, but apart from that I enjoy listening to him talk.

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Thank-you. I think capitalism needs some reining in, but that’s happened before. I also worry about democracy. Maybe we’ll seek asylum. I’m Irish so we’ve one foot n the door.

He’s saying what most people think.

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Best bar visit ever - Mick + Ian Blackford!

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“The forces of ‘organized money’ are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred" - F.D.Roosevelt.
There were though I guess 3 stages to the dismantling of ‘laissez-faire’ capitalism after the Wall Street Crash: Roosevelt’s massive ’ New Deal’ state interventions in the 30s, the Second World War, and the Keynesian Bretton Woods post-war controls of the free market.
But there were at least 2 other factors: the shock of what happened in Europe (without the New Deal) - ie. depression, fascism, war and holocaust - and the ever-growing perceived threat of soviet communism and revolution in the west.
It was arguably these fears that enabled the creation of something of a consensus around controlling capitalism, which enabled the period of relative stability 1945-75 - until the return of laissez-faire in its neo-liberal guise of Thatcherism/Reaganomics.

Hopefully the disasters of the current manifestations of Thatcher and Reagan - Trump and Truss - will bury the unbridled capitalism ideology again - but the caveat has to be that it took more than Roosevelt’s interventionist policies - it took massive international dislocations.

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I think those dislocations are starting to take place!