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Now we're out of the EU we probably could do that.

And given the giant profits the energy producers are making, presumably the cost of extraction isn’t anywhere near (or as volatile as) the wholesale price.

They've already sold the rights to extract gas so would have to go back on that to do this, and would then need the expertise / machinery to extract it (and would be unlikely to get help from oil companies who have just been burnt by govt).

UK international reputation hurt for failing to honour contracts, lack of actual ability to get stuff out.

So it could have worked if we'd planned better from the start but the issue was in starting the "sell it to oil co" plan in the first place.

Arguably they could still tax them more and then use that money to fund rebates for consumers- that's more or less the lab plan now I think

See also Norway and their sovereign fund form not selling off their natural assets and has kept them financially stable.

https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1560692459717500928

Ray Winstone said no then?

I'm the Daddy now.

Bonus points for anyone who gets that Ray Winstone reference.

Helps that they also have the resources for significant hydroelectric generation so the oil and gas they sell is purely for profit. But yes the licenses whored off to the various Tory donors leave little practical profit to our country as a whole.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rb3Mv2m5zw

Yep, they would need to compensate the companies who currently own those licenses. It's certainly possible. Labour are planning on giving those same companies ~£29 billion in order to set the price cap at current levels. How much more to buy back the licenses?

The expertise would be a lot of the same people and service providers already working for those current companies. They would just be taken on by UK Gas co.

And as for the UK's reputation ... well, not sure that is such a huge issue anymore.

I guess I'm just saying it's still possible.

take back control

Has this been resolved yet?

Plus the question of where the ships are registered. I think P&O's are registered in Cyprus, Bermuda and the Bahamas. Some of the laws of those countries apply to the crew even when they're in British ports. Maybe the crews could have some British labour rights if the govt passed a law that the routes could only be served by British registered ships? But I doubt that's workable - it kind of defeats the object of international shipping.

The British crews on P & O ferries were a bit of an anachronism - the industry raced to the bottom in terms of wages decades ago. Filipino seafarers get about $1000 per month. The British Merchant Navy was once the biggest in the world but it's tiny now. European seafarers still exist but they seem to be in specialist niches like oil industry support vessels and megayachts.

@Lebowski

I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it is full of difficulties and probably very expensive. I'm also not sure that the comments about expertise don't understate the difficulty. We pay off BP to get out of the licensing agreement - we don't nationalise BP, so not clear we do get all their staff. And even if we did, the individual staff members don't retain all the knowledge (or bring the physical equipment with them). A load of technical info will be commercially valuable and will belong to BP - it isn't going to be no difficulty at all to recreate and obtain that info.

I'm not some sort of "nothing should be in public hands" Thatcherist but I think it's easier to glibly say "oh well we could just keep those profits instead" rather than thinking about how difficult / expensive it might actually be. And is that really our strategy - we want to phase out fossil fuels, so now is the time for our state to invest huge resources in learning how to extract oil?

Might it not just make more sense to try and ensure we get a better share of the profit, use that to address the short term issue, and look for other sources of energy going forward?

Why would/should we invest in nationalising then North Sea fields when we know fossil fuels and the fields themselves are running out of time?

Better to help short term with funding people and business whilst putting the money into wind/tidal/solar surely?

but somehow people aren't capable of knowing whether they're going faster than 20mph on a bicycle? Really?

Tbf I only know Im over 20 moh from the way traffic passes me slower, its about as fsst as Im willing to go and I guess I can feel Im pushing quite hard.
I have no idea to tell without looking at strava or summat.
I imagine as I get fitter 20mph will feel completely different.

The BBC site has this story about a woman in the US who slips her cuffs off in the back of an escape car https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-62613563 After you watch it the next story you're offered is from 2017. It's heartbreaking. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-41179372 Toscha Sponsler slips her cuffs and drives off in the police car. She's caught after a high speed chase. She didn't hurt anyone. She tried to grab a shotgun in the car but it was locked. Sentenced to 45 years. https://lufkindailynews.com/news/community/article_c2514758-2268-11e8-bab1-07c9919ac071.html

The court heard she's bipolar, had been sexually abused after being sold by her mother, and was homeless, living in the woods. She appealed but her sentence was upheld. She'll be eligible for parole in 2040. https://inmate.tdcj.texas.gov/InmateSearch/viewDetail.action?sid=07508580

She seems intelligent and eloquent https://heavy.com/news/2017/09/toscha-sponsler-lufkin-texas-police-chase-handcuffs-photos-mugshot/ What would her sentence have been in the UK? 2 years? They should be making a film about her life story, not stealing her life from her.

Gas is used as a backup when renewables aren't generating a lot of power, untill there is enough storage some gas is needed.

Some industries still need gas too. It should not become an excuse to delay the switch to renewables.

And all the £££££ we pay for gas cannot go into upgrading insulation now either.

It’s used as a backup now, yes. But it doesn’t need to always be the case.

But; if we continue to do tomorrow what we do today then it’s likely to remain a crucial part of the mix.

Better to help short term with funding people and business whilst putting the money into wind/tidal/solar surely?

Lol. That'll never work /s

Natural Gas will remain the back up of last resort for a long time as it is much cheaper than any other option (we are talking for 10-14 days running a year), the UK also plans to use significant amounts of natural gas to produce blue hydrogen as part of the net zero strategy so there is a lot of life left yet in the gas fields and you might as well produce it domestically as import it if that's what you are committing to and we currently import 50% anyway, so as things transition you can reduce the imports and increase security of supply

+1
To letting fossil fuel extraction remain a capitalist endeavour and instead temper the worst effects of market forces by heavy regulation and progressive taxation.
Let that regulation be the tool that works to wean us off the stuff altogether.

Rishi Sunak sounds like Tony Blair in a slightly higher key. There y'are you can have that, it's been bothering me for a couple of days.

Re Ben Gregory's crash, why are some articles avoiding any mention of a car at all? BBC and sky both have zero, only calling it a "serious bike crash". Daily Mail is where I found that he was actually hit by a car.
Is it a legal thing?

I noticed that with the Guardian article, it was impossible to tell what happened.