In the news

Anyone listening to PM?

Fair play to Evan Davies. Diplomatically ripping it to the Russian ambassador to the EU.

Husband of one of the teachers killed in the Texas shooting dies of a heart attack

I watched a Nadine Dorries TikTok policy announcement so you also have to.

https://twitter.com/RealPaulLewis/status/1529941610729029639?t=8hX3YhTEGuapDRX9Z_92jA&s=19

The photo of Steve “hello fellow kids” Buscemi is a nice touch

Reports that Steve Barclay edited the Gray report just before it was published.

It was openly reported that it was still being written in the cabinet office at 8:30, then at 9:15 ish that it was received by no 10, then it wasn't received until after 10am.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/claims-boris-johnsons-chief-staff-27077757

He should be put on it as second author.

Assume he watered down the conclusion, expecting nobody to read the rest...

Why doesn't the government just tell/legislate OFGEM that it can't raise the energy cap a) at all, or b) more than inflation?
It seems the windfall tax just takes some ££ from the energy companies and they just put the prices up so it all flows back to them. Same with the 5p petrol thing - prices went down a bit (though not 5p round us) - and then carried on going on up again with the fuel companies pretty much pocketing the cash as far as I can see.

Reports that Steve Barclay edited the Gray report just before it was published.

We'll know for sure when the new years honours list is published.

I think the complexity is that it is not the consumer facing energy companies that are making the mass profits, they are buying on the open market for massively high prices which they are passing on to consumers. The mad profits are being made a stage earlier by the companies who are producing the energy, hence the taxing of them.
If they don't allow the energy cap to go up, there will be a whole load more energy companies that go under, leaving us back with a oligopoly, who could then eventually price manipulate in the future if wholesale energy prices do come down.

The only way they could not raise the enrgy cap would be to top up with payments to the energy companies, but that would be politically suicide I suspect, so it is better for them to give money to the end user, even if it costs the same and has the same effect in the long run.

The answer is of course to go back in time and not privatise...

The price cap applies to the domestic energy providers (e.g. Bulb) and it's based on the wholesale price of energy. The domestic energy suppliers are buying energy at high prices, they don't produce energy themselves. Because the prices are rising so fast, there are periods where the price cap is lower than wholesale prices, which is why so many of them went bust over the last year (ie. they lose money for every kWh of electricity their customers use).

The windfall tax applies to energy producers who are selling energy at insane prices (e.g. Shell). The prices are high because of Russia/Ukraine and COVID.

There is a little bit of overlap of course - Shell does household energy for example - but by and large they're different companies

Gotcha - thanks both.

The domestic energy suppliers are buying energy at high prices, they don't produce energy themselves.

Apart from where they do. I'm with EDF on a 100% carbon free tariff of presumably mostly nuclear. Stupid market.

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Wholesale prices are back down to more normal levels too, so lots of lovely profits to be made.

Market rigging how it was designed to work when they privatised it in the first place...

The only way they could not raise the enrgy cap would be to top up with payments to the energy companies

I was about to say that there are other options, and then

The answer is of course to go back in time and not privatise...

Nationalise it. Nationalise all the things.

Excellent

UK to become land of milk and honey by Summer '23, all our present travails to be a thing of the past.

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Failing that, Rishi definitely has some billions up his sleeve for electorate bribery purposes next year.

Rishi definitely has some billions up his sleeve

The thing is, its our money that he's spending.

I didn't say whose billions they were. But yes, bribing people with their own money is the greatest con politicians pull.

Nice to see Johnson changing the ministerial code on a whim to remove scrutiny and accountability over himself, proud democracy in action

It's infuriating isn't it.

Also Boris, Rishi?

They are not your fucking friends, nor are they Madonna or Beyoncé