Some key Questions about energy security

Why are we British so allergic to having key energy utilities owned by [and making profits for]  the British Taxpayer when we are quite content to let the French Sate Owned EDF operate here? Is domestic energy security not as important as building dinosaur weapon systems like Trident replacement?  The defence industry gets about £40bn annually from the Treasury. Rail gets about £4bn [silly me I thought the point of privatisation was to get rid of taxpayer subsidy] and DECC gets £4bn of which more than half goes to dealing with old nuclear plants. Are our priorities right? Answers on a postcard.

A 'bog standard' £400k

The Observer 10th March 2013 interviewed eleven City of London finance workers to seek views on the EU plan to restrict payouts. What was weird was the fantasy land in which these people live - except it's not a fantasy, it is the reality. One man in his 30's said “If you are a bog standard trader you make maybe £400k of which £150k is base pay”. He went on to point out that the cap would reduce his total remuneration by £50k & that would not encourage him to move abroad. One other in his mid 40's queried whether, if his pay was drastically cut by this cap, he would want to go on getting up at 5a.m & not finishing work until 8p.m. Can someone tell us in what other job can a 'bog standard' 30yr old make £400k per annum? Anyone on average earnings has to work for 15yrs to make £400k. And as for working from 5am to 8pm a hell of a lot of cleaners, hotel workers & others do that for less than a total of £25k per annum because they need two jobs on mimimum wage to make ends meet. It is not the politics of envy to suggest that this delusion in the financial world about what a proper entitlement for effort is worth must be fixed.

Democracy in trouble?

From Australia: Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at Government House. One is from Cabramatta, another is from Marrickville, and the third is from Lane Cove. All three go with an official to examine the fence.  The Cabramatta contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well," he says, "I figure the job will run about $900, $400 for materials, $400 for my crew and $100 profit for me."The Marrickville contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700. That's $300 for materials, $300 for my crew and $100 profit for me". The Lane Cove contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the government official and whispers, "$2,700."
The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys. How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The Lane Cove contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000
for you, and we hire the guy from Marrickville to fix the fence." "Done!" Replies the government official.

I do, in fact, find it a bit worrying that this sort of story has moved from being very amusing cynicism to pretty much mainstream expectation. Democracy in developed countries seems to me to be in deep trouble. 

Computer says Nooo

I paid out some £3300 on my Halifax Credit Card, this showed up on my monthly statement. Two days later my card had a rebate of £2400. It seemed sensible to contact Halifax to see if my statement could be re-issued to reflect the real balance of £900. I'm told 'Our system doesn't allow us to do this'. Welcome to the nightmare world where humans are totally superfluous – the COMPUTER rules alone. Of course it's not quite that simple. Instead of being able to just pay off £900 & incur no interest I'm now obliged to either pay the £3300 and then next month I'll be shown a big credit which I can only eliminate by using the card all the time thereby making more money for Halifax from their levy on transactions or I pay off less than the full amount & incur Halifax card interest charge. Either way Halifax makes more money from their computer 'system'. I hesitated about this post because there is bound to be someone who comments about how lucky I am to have these options. That I don't deny but it is not the point. The point is that everywhere you turn computer driven business practices have the hidden agenda of 'rip off the customer'.Already this year I've had this experience with two insurance companies and an energy supplier where a rigid computer system, which cannot respond to their error, not mine, has caused me unnecessary expense to the benefit of the company concerned.

Hooray for the EU - no wonder the tory 'Right Wing' wants out.

The European Parliament has agreed proposals that would prevent banks paying bonuses that are more than their fixed salary, unless shareholders holding two thirds of the bank's shares attend a meeting and agree to override that. Tuesday will see a needle negotiation between the Parliament and EU government representatives. It’s behind closed doors, but right now the UK is trying to get other governments to side with it to block the bonus ban. Go to:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/uk_bankers_champagne_on_our_tab_a/?bLZacdb&v=22076

Some thoughts to ponder

Professor of politics, John Keane of the University of Sydney, writes: “ Young citizens see few intelligent political leaders who speak their language, actively represent their interests and work for equitable political change. For many 'liberal democracy' is phantom democracy, a game played by rich and powerful men trading in broken promises. They see that 'Big Money' and 'Big Lobbying' disproportionately win, and that the rhythms of parliamentary government are out of whack with environmental catastrophes. Parliamentary democracy seems reactive, dragged down by its inability to address large domestic & cross border issues. Especially worrying, many young people say, is the growing resort to executive rule. From drones & nuclear weapons to imposed fiscal austerity and environmental policy, decisions of basic importance to the lives of millions of people are being decided [or blocked] arbitrarily behind closed doors.” Whether he is right or not, the decline in 'Party' membership coupled with the decline in the numbers bothering to vote means that our leaders should be giving these thoughts very serious consideration. It is all very well for pensioners like the writer of this post to be politically active & turn out to vote but we are not the future.

Tory EU haters & brain dead Labour

Hands up if you think it is possible to get any sense into the relationship between the UK and other EU countries. If no one put their hand up they are sadly all too correct. The Tory rebels who caused the defeat of the Government over the EU budget have not only shown us that the Tory party is undisciplined [ in sharp contrast to the LibDems] but have made it much less likely that Cameron can get any sort of movement towards the British position on the budget. So he might have to use the veto [which is not a veto] because if no budget can be agreed there is a formula that operates to keep the EU solvent & which will most likely involve an increase in the UK contribution. Well done those rebels. Of course they will then try & wriggle out by saying that this proves the UK should quit Europe. So what if we do quit? Does anyone with half a brain think that the rest of the EU would continue to offer the kind of trade deals that we get as of right from being in the EU? After we have been such a gold medal pain in the backside for decades? The rest of the EU would be more likely to ring the church bells in celebration of our departure. And what of Labour? Having attacked Cameron for 'leaving the room' and marginalising Britain how is Miliband going to explain having essentially forced Cameron to repeat the performance? We are supposed to be returning to old fashioned school discipline so perhaps he should write out one hundred times the definition of integrity.