Don't Pay UK

[Class68driver]

https://dontpay.uk/
Just seen this via Martin Lewis this morning. A group trying to get a million people to cancel their direct debit for electricity and gas on 1st October if the government and energy companies don't act on the crazy prices. They say if a million people did this the companies would have to do something. I'm not sure but would be interested on others opinions.

 

[Cwrw666]

Never paid by direct debit. Ok in the long term you save 5/ or so but all the quotes I ever had we're for about 30/ more than my actual usage.
F*** em.

 

[Nicks90]

I've been gathering wood like a demon this year for my 2 wood burners
I have no intention of paying any extra this year and having a home office means I can feed them both wood all day long to keep them banked ready for the evening when the cold blooded women get home.

 

[foxy]

https://dontpay.uk/
Just seen this via Martin Lewis this morning. A group trying to get a million people to cancel their direct debit for electricity and gas on 1st October if the government and energy companies don't act on the crazy prices. They say if a million people did this the companies would have to do something. I'm not sure but would be interested on others opinions.

I think if everyone went back to cash the banks would become more competitive.

 

[Dutto]

We lived in either a boat, caravan or motorhome for many years and learned a few things that are becoming more and more important as costs rise.

Here are a few tips, take them or leave them:

1. We shower no more than once a week; less in the winter. We use “Baby Wipes” and Cologne between showers.
2. The washing machine is used on average once per week. It is on Full Load / 40*C / 45 minute cycle.
3. The electric drier has been used only twice this year and clothes horses are normally used for drying.
4. In the heat we keep the windows and doors closed on the sunny side of the house, have two fans (1 in the bedroom and 1 in the lounge) which are positioned to pull air into the house and we use a Spray Bottle of fresh water to keep cool. (Spraying water on your feet give the best effect.). As a temporary measure, we also place sheet insulation on all exterior windows and doors on the ground floor and south facing windows on the upper floor. (As the insulation is removed when it becomes cooler we use either Sellotape or Blue Tack to keep it in place.)
5. The central heating is set at 16*C. It is much cheaper to put warm clothing on, or go to bed, than it is to fire up the central heating.
6. Washing up can be done with luke-warm water and heating enough water takes 2 minutes in a 700w microwave!
7. Rather than boil a kettle every time we want a hot drink, we use a one litre vacuum flask and fill that once a day.
8. We never de-frost anything from the freezer.
9. We fill the freezer up by cooking a load of meals (chilli beef, curried chicken, pulled pork etc) and then add rice, pasta, bread, fresh vegetables etc when they are eaten,
10. The thought of spending money to chill spirits, wine or beer is anathema to me so, other than “hot drinks”, everything other beverage is served at just below ambient temperature by storing it in the shade at or below ground level.

Before the massive rise in fuel costs, our combined “electricity+gas”
bill was less than £400 a year! I don’t expect it to go much above £1,000 in the near future!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Martin Lewis is saying the Energy Crisis is on the scale of the pandemic.
Just like the pandemic the government are not reacting quickly enough to prevent a catastrophic situation this winter.

 

[An Ankoù]

Before the massive rise in fuel costs, our combined “electricity+gas”
bill was less than £400 a year! I don’t expect it to go much above £1,000 in the near future!

Nice one. I'm all for economies even though, for the very first time in my life, I don't need to worry unduly about rising costs. But I'll be buggggered if I'll see those leeches of service company shareholders get a single sou more than I can afford paying.

Does your combined bill of £400 include energy spent on brewing?

 

[Brew_DD2]

Martin Lewis is saying the Energy Crisis is on the scale of the pandemic.
Just like the pandemic the government are not reacting quickly enough to prevent a catastrophic situation this winter.

This is the big problem. I'm all for hiding big business to account, but the elephant in the room is that we have a lame-duck government. It just isn't acceptable that the government is doing absolutely nothing because they are too busy tearing strips out of each other.

 

[An Ankoù]

This is an interesting article. Very ambiguous, of course. My reading is that EDF are not selling at a loss (they're still making healthy profits) but a selling below market rates. I don't think they'll get very far with their suit. Not only has the Government capped the price, but they're renationalising the service- and quite rightly, too.
EDF is a big player in the UK, where it does sell at market rates, on the other hand.
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ced-to-sell-energy-at-a-loss-macron-price-cap
If anyone can explain this to me, I'd be grateful: "The energy company has to sell electricity to rivals at a heavy discount as a counterbalance to its monopoly position." I thought having a monopoly means that you don't really have rivals!

 

[Dutto]

….

Does your combined bill of £400 include energy spent on brewing?

All except the bottled gas!


I let SWMBO put the Freezer on the same circuit as the Brew Fridge; and I’m still on a Camping Gaz bottle I removed from the caravan when I sold it nearly a year ago!

One of the joys of Kit Brewing is that most of the heating requirement has already been done!

 

[Crappyfish]

This is an interesting article. Very ambiguous, of course. My reading is that EDF are not selling at a loss (they're still making healthy profits) but a selling below market rates. I don't think they'll get very far with their suit. Not only has the Government capped the price, but they're renationalising the service- and quite rightly, too.
EDF is a big player in the UK, where it does sell at market rates, on the other hand.
https://www.theguardian.com/busines...ced-to-sell-energy-at-a-loss-macron-price-cap
If anyone can explain this to me, I'd be grateful: "The energy company has to sell electricity to rivals at a heavy discount as a counterbalance to its monopoly position." I thought having a monopoly means that you don't really have rivals!

Don't believe a word EDF are saying without knowing who sets the market price. At least the French government aren't afraid to take them on unlike our shi@@y crowd of losers

 

[Dutto]

Don't believe a word EDF are saying without knowing who sets the market price. At least the French government aren't afraid to take them on unlike our shi@@y crowd of losers

Problems with the above are:

1. EDF is/was (*) 84% owned by the French Government.
2. Was sold by the French Government who are now trying to re-purchase what they sold. (**)
3. The ***** never told the UK voting public that Privatising UK industries meant that they could be bought by Nationalised industries from other countries!

We were sold a dog’s breakfast by The ***** and now neither own nor control our main utilities!


(*)
https://www.power-technology.com/news/france-full-control-edf/
(**)
https://www.edfenergy.com/media-cen...its-5-million-customers-octopus-energy-groups

 

[Robin54]

I would have thought any educated person would know that a publicly listed company is always a target from anyone else. I think the gov of the day made the mistake not holding a Golden Share.

 

[Dutto]

I would have thought any educated person would know that a publicly listed company is always a target from anyone else. I think the gov of the day made the mistake not holding a Golden Share.

Sorry but:

1. No-one said The ***** was smart but she was educated; and as a Tory she wanted to Privatise every publicly owned company.
2. To hold a “Golden Share” when your sole desire is to Privatise a Nationalised industry would like being “nearly a virgin”! (I think The ***** was made to do it a few times, but her successors sold them!)

PS
https://www.oxera.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Shares-in-privatised-companies.pdf
Worth a read.

 

[Robin54]

What are you talking about....well we all know

 

[Dutto]

What are you talking about....well we all know

If only you knew!

 

[itry]

What I dont understand is their pleading its being sold to cheap its being sold at below cost , boo hoo poor us . Yet reporting profits of the best year to date. That's crying wolf surly. Were all taking it in the *** over a companys greed. I saw Gordon brown piped up with "the government should take this back over and sort out the problem" were with out Russian gas but now at the mercy of France , who at the moment don't seem to really like us. Example the fishing row and the channel migrants and leaving the eu.

 

[An Ankoù]

What I dont understand is their pleading its being sold to cheap its being sold at below cost , boo hoo poor us . Yet reporting profits of the best year to date. That's crying wolf surly. Were all taking it in the *** over a companys greed. I saw Gordon brown piped up with "the government should take this back over and sort out the problem" were with out Russian gas but now at the mercy of France , who at the moment don't seem to really like us. Example the fishing row and the channel migrants and leaving the eu.

If you're talking about EDF, electricity is not being sold below cost. Most of the electricity here comes from nuclear plants and much of the rest from wind turbines and a bit of tidal stuff at the mouth of rivers. Just because the world price for energy goes up (mainly through opportunism) doesn't mean it's suddenly dearer to run a reactor or maintain a wind turbine. Only 16% of EDF is in private hands and their shareholders are whinging because they're not trousering the big bucks that BP and Shell shareholders are because Macron has capped electricity price rises at 4%.
Stop whining about being at the mercy of foreigners. If the UK was self-sufficient, and it could easily be self-sufficient, then we wouldn't be at anybody's mercy. As soon as you allow foreign investors- most of whom are Chinese, by the way- then you're at their mercy. Same thing with doctors and nurses- don't pay to train our home-grown ones when it's easier and cheaper to nick them from India and the Philipines. Same with just about every other sector. Britain's been sold off and sold out. Do something about it.
The fishing row is about BoJo selling out the fisherman just as he's selling out the farmers, just as he's selling out you and me.
Whining solves nothing. Only action works. What are you going to do about it?

 

[itry]

If you're talking about EDF, electricity is not being sold below cost. Most of the electricity here comes from nuclear plants and much of the rest from wind turbines and a bit of tidal stuff at the mouth of rivers. Just because the world price for energy goes up (mainly through opportunism) doesn't mean it's suddenly dearer to run a reactor or maintain a wind turbine. Only 16% of EDF is in private hands and their shareholders are whinging because they're not trousering the big bucks that BP and Shell shareholders are because Macron has capped electricity price rises at 4%.
Stop whining about being at the mercy of foreigners. If the UK was self-sufficient, and it could easily be self-sufficient, then we wouldn't be at anybody's mercy. As soon as you allow foreign investors- most of whom are Chinese, by the way- then you're at their mercy. Same thing with doctors and nurses- don't pay to train our home-grown ones when it's easier and cheaper to nick them from India and the Philipines. Same with just about every other sector. Britain's been sold off and sold out. Do something about it.
The fishing row is about BoJo selling out the fisherman just as he's selling out the farmers, just as he's selling out you and me.
Whining solves nothing. Only action works. What are you going to do about it?

I dont know. You have a firm grip on the situation. What should we do?

 

[An Ankoù]

I dont know. You have a firm grip on the situation. What should we do?

I don't know either, @itry. Or rather, I know that we need to find a government that puts the country's interest first, rather than lining their ownn pockets and those of their mates. That wants to build a strong and independent and influential Britain (brexit and the myth of sovereignty was a backward step).
But where shall we find such leaders? Certainly not in Starmer! Saying he's not a bad as Bojo is like saying that being shot isnt as bad as drowning.
And therein lies the rub. In the meantime, we find solace in whinging and whining. I think we need a new and revolutionary party.
We'll either rise to the challenge or simply disappear.