Politics, politics, politics (so long and thanks for all the fish)

[Silly McSilly Face]

Its been coming for years and yes I include Labour in that

My food bills we going north of astronomical post Brexit and have not stopped. Countries been run by macarons for 10+ years

Energy and fuel costs in particular are causing a massive issue. And people dont understand just how insidious they are. My wife was banging on about the cost of milk almost doubling in the last few years. I was like - its simple:
Dairy farmers energy bills have likely doubled. They'll have absorbed some of it but have passed it on to some extent to Tesco. Tesco have to pay higher energy costs too and fuel costs to get the milk from A to B and run the refrigeration units it's stored in. Pretty much that alone explains the doubling in price.
Primary root cause is our reliance on gas for energy cooked with the war in Ukraine - Johnson did a sly deal to give Germany most of our gas supply to facilitate a deal to cut off Russian funding and labour have subsequently wound down north sea operations while we are still heavily reliant on gas. We were primarily reliant on imports as ironically we exported most of our gas but the exports offset prices and as we were a large local producer of gas its increased gas prices generally as supply to the wholesale markets since 2022 has dwindled smaller and smaller while demand remains high. The largest European supplier of gas (Russia) being persona non grata has trashed the market and our recent decisions to reduce gas storage capacity and wind down north sea operations was an act of self harm in that context....

 

[Rorschach]

Yeh it's frustrating yet not just a recent phenomenon....foodbills been crippling me for last 6/7 years. Good job I'm on a diet and health kick, treats have become too expensive ha

I grow a bit of my own too - not enough to make much of a dent in my food bill. It is more of a hobby, and a learning exercise for something more expansive in the future.

 

[Lilbaz]

Energy and fuel costs in particular are causing a massive issue. And people dont understand just how insidious they are. My wife was banging on about the cost of milk almost doubling in the last few years. I was like - its simple:
Dairy farmers energy bills have likely doubled. They'll have absorbed some of it but have passed it on to some extent to Tesco. Tesco have to pay higher energy costs too and fuel costs to get the milk from A to B and run the refrigeration units it's stored in. Pretty much that alone explains the doubling in price.
Primary root cause is our reliance on gas for energy cooked with the war in Ukraine - Johnson did a sly deal to give Germany most of our gas supply to facilitate a deal to cut off Russian funding and labour have subsequently wound down north sea operations while we are still heavily reliant on gas. We were primarily reliant on imports as ironically we exported most of our gas but the exports offset prices and as we were a large local producer of gas its increased gas prices generally as supply to the wholesale markets since 2022 has dwindled smaller and smaller while demand remains high. The largest European supplier of gas (Russia) being persona non grata has trashed the market and our recent decisions to reduce gas storage capacity and wind down north sea operations was an act of self harm in that context....

The problem is how we pay for our energy. Marginal pricing means we pay the rate of the highest cost energy source.
There is no competition. You can't choose where you get your electrons from when you plug into a socket. If we had fusion tomorrow costing almost nothing if a part of the energy mix was expensive then thst is the price we would pay for it all.

The double whammy is that the energy producers charge over the top prices. Then the government buys it then sells it for cheaper to the suppliers. Subsidising the cost. Problem is the suppliers are usually owned by the producers. So are msking a double profit. Selling to the government for say £100. Then buying it bsck from them for £50. Then selling it to us for £80. (Not real price obviously).
You also have standing charges.