Sunday, January 06, 2008

Energy prices: treasure island plundered again

Following hot on the heels of sub-prime financial industries and our government's failed attempt at claiming it was "not our problem, guv", a further example of the sacrifice made by this badly mislead nation on the altar of globalisation is the price increase announced by foreign-owned energy cartel operators.

Our French and German providers stockpile fuel surpluses in the summer, then subsidise their home markets, and make up the full price with increases on the gullible Brits. And God knows what the Russians have got planned for us.

The notion that foreign ownership of strategic British businesses is somehow good for us in a global economy needs explaining to TMP. We appear to be Luddites who cannot grasp the macro economic principles of encouraging foreign commercial and political interests to own and control us.

Might it have anything to do with the UK government then be able to wring its hands and claim that the price of energy isn't their fault - in much the same way that this government passed control of interests rates to Bank of England? Happily claiming credit for anything that was perceived as a positive outcome when inexperienced City scribblers heaped praise on Brown's management of the Tory financial legacy - but obliged to get embroiled in the denouement of the Northern Rock debacle...

Another UK interventionist response is nevertheless on the stocks - it will be a leaf out of the French books, and a return to state-planned nuclear power, albeit about 10 years too late. Meantime, perhaps we could chop up and burn otherwise useless structures such as the Big Brother House and the Scottish Assembly building, along with Brown's almost entirely wooden administration, and lash any remaining MPs to treadmill generators.

When the high cost of your heating this winter arrives, just remember who was in charge when our French and German "partners" were allowed to buy up UK energy companies. Also remember just how tricky it is for foreign companies to own utilities in France and Germany...

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