Power To The People!

 

This is what energy company SSE had to say today as it raised prices:

‘Over many years, policymakers themselves have failed to highlight adequately the cost to consumers of the policies they have pursued in government.’

 

Government has been allowed to hide the costs of those ‘green’ energy policies and the way they makes our fuel bills go ever upward, and the reason is that the BBC has, instead of doing what Humphrys said was the BBC’s role, bringing Power to account, it has done everything it could to support those policies:

The BBC has worked hand in hand with climate scientists.

It’s journalists have taken money from those climate scientists to fund their propaganda.

It has worked hand in hand with climate activists.

It is a climate activist in its own right.

 

The BBC instead of investigating, challenging and reporting political events surrounding climate change has worked with the politicians to promote their policies.

Even today the BBC continues to muddy the waters and distract attention from the real reasons for price rises and concentrates on inciting a feeling amongst the public that the energy companies are profiteering as they freeze in their homes and old people and the vulnerable fall sick or die from the cold.

We are constantly treated to Miliband’s analysis …that the market is failing and companies ripping us off….and his price freeze is the answer.

Here the BBC tells us that Greg Barker, government Energy Minister, has been ‘defending the energy companies’ against Miliband’s claims and that ‘the more these companies put their bills up the more Ed Miliband’s offer looks attractive’..….so the BBC takes Labour’s narrative…that the Tories are only supporting big companies and abandoning the ‘vulnerable’….and Miliband’s policy is popular.

The BBC must think everyone is a fool…Miliband’s proposals have been roundly condemned by just about everyone…even a previous Labour energy minister.

 

This is what the BBC tells us Adam Scorer, Director of Consumer Futures says:

“SSE and others who follow need to demonstrate why this rise is justified.”

But in fact his main message was this (11 mins):

I have a lot of sympathy with SSE…We are in a high cost energy market and the prices aren’t going to come down any time soon…the only solution is…Government needs to make a real and sustained difference to the cost of energy. Sadly, short term freezes or the exhortation to switch just do not get to the heart of the matter. We need to see Government and regulators pull the right levers.’

 

So Miliband’s short term price freeze is a crock.

Strange the BBC didn’t quote that.

 

 

Just been listening to Labour’s Diane Abbot on Question Time….she claims that the 8% rise in energy price by SSE demonstrates that the energy market is rigged and dysfunctional.

So let’s have a  look at whether the companies are making undue profits, if the market is rigged and dysfunctional…and if so, who is to blame.

The company says it has put prices up because of a rise in wholesale prices…in the main…. it is their first price rise in twelve months….and the profit margin is a mere 5%.

Ofgem is the regulator for the energy market and this is what it has to say about the price of energy:

Facts about wholesale costs
The wholesale price of gas for use this winter is 8 per cent higher than the price of gas for use last winter.
The wholesale price of electricity for use this winter is 13 per cent higher than the price of electricity for use last winter.

We have made the transition from a country self-sufficient in gas to a country dependent on gas imports. This, together with environmental targets and the need to invest in ageing power stations and energy networks, has increased pressure on prices.

Facts about environmental costs
Over the last ten years environmental costs have risen from £10 to over £100.
Compared to 2012, environmental costs have risen by around £10 to £115 of an average annual dual fuel household bill.
If current trends continue, we anticipate environmental costs to increase further over the next 12 months.

Energy bills have risen in recent years for a number of reasons. These include the impact of global energy prices on wholesale energy costs, the increasing cost of meeting the government’s environmental targets and the cost of investing in the pipe and wire networks.

So that’s pretty clear…SSE raises prices 8%…Miliband claims it’s a scandal, the BBC reports his words…but doesn’t report along side that that wholesale prices have risen 8% for gas and 13% for electricity.

 

The BBC has been broadcasting a doom and gloom scenario for these price rises…it has been broadcasting Miliband’s soundbite all day…‘It’s a scandal and the government is just standing by allowing these companies to rip us off.’

John Pienaar tells us every chance he gets that Ed Miliband is setting the agenda on the ‘cost of living crisis’….no mention that this new line by Labour is because their Plan B strategy failed so miserably.

Is Miliband setting the agenda then?
Didn’t the government raise the tax thresh hold for millions of low paid workers? (Something that rarely gets a mention on the BBC)…and as for energy isn’t the government already working to keep prices low and transparent and improve competition in the market?  So, well ahead of Miliband.

The government tells us:

On 21 June 2013, after two years extensive research, we published detailed rule changes that will deliver a simpler, clearer and fairer energy market.
The reforms will tackle problems of widespread consumer confusion over energy tariffs, poor supplier behaviour and lack of transparency which is stifling competition. This will give consumers the choice they want and simplicity to compare energy tariffs, making it much easier to access the information they need to find the best deal on the market.

 

There is little genuine effort on the part of the BBC to drill down into the figures and who is to blame.

Here is Guido:
Ed Admitted Cost of Living Would Be Increased By His Policies
Willing to “Lose Six Months of Economic Growth”

Here is Sky News:
Demonising Energy Firms May Be Slightly Unfair

Here is the Telegraph:
Ed Miliband can’t freeze those bills he himself sent through the roof

But look at the BBC and Miliband’s role in all this is missing….the green tax burden is downplayed and the analysis of exactly why prices rise is missing in detail…the BBC mentions wholesale prices and ‘government levies’ as it puts it, but fails to give the detail…such as wholesale has risen 8% and 13% in the last year…kind of an important fact.

They tell us that the green taxes, or government levies or programmes, only make up a small part of a bill….
David Cameron wants to shift the focus of restricting price rises on to green taxes, which make up part of your bill…It’s only a small percentage of what you pay

A small percentage?  The BBC itself tells us that it is up to 11%….and as you can see from Ofgem’s figures that is £115 per year on your bill and set to rise…anything up to a total of£300.

As the green tax is the only thing other than company profit that can be reduced and thereby reduce retail prices those taxes should be taking a far more prominent role in the discussions by the BBC.

 

Are the markets failing?  Well it makes a nice soundbite….but what is the truth and who is responsible for the markets?

Firstly I fail to see how 6 companies constitutes a lack of competition…amongst a myriad of smaller companies…and it was Labour that reduced the number of big companies from 14 to 6…and bare in mind that National Grid is a monopoly..and its prices have gone up 10%…why is that not a ‘scandal’, why is that not due to lack of competition, why does Miliband not want to freeze their prices?

 

Clearly it is not a market failure that is driving up prices….and with margins of only 5% the companies don’t have much room for price cuts…..and as they all buy wholesale from the same markets and use the same National Grid infrastructure prices are always going to be similar and therefore comments from Labour about market failure can be seen to be so much hot air.

 

Who is responsible for regulating the market and what is their role?

Ofgem is the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets.

Our role is to make sure that retail energy markets work in the interests of consumers. We do this by monitoring the market and, where necessary, taking action to strengthen competition or enforce the rules with which suppliers must comply.

Our priority is to protect customers’ interests.  One way in which we do this is through the promotion of effectively functioning competitive markets.

When necessary, we use our powers to monitor and address any anti-competitive behaviour or practices which may affect the market.

 

So pretty clear…Ofgem regulates the market, tries to ensure ‘value for money’ for the customer and promotes competition within the market.

If the market isn’t working presumably it’s not the market’s fault, because the market is being ‘controlled’ by the state regulator.

It is Ofgem’s fault.

Ofgem also regulates the National Grid network….SSE said that 10% of its cost rise came from the National Grid raising its own prices….this is what Ofgem says:

It is important that National Grid has appropriate commercial incentives to operate the gas NTS in an economic and efficient manner, as they are required to do under the terms of their licence as the System Operator.
To achieve this we work to develop incentive schemes that provide National Grid with an appropriate balance of risk and reward. At the same time, we also try to protect the interests of present and future consumers, who ultimately pay for the costs of system operation.

 

Listening to the BBC and its own analysis and presentation you’d never know of Ofgem’s large and vital role, you’d never know of the price rises in wholesale gas and electricity and how they relate to SSE’s price rise, you’d never know whether the markets are failing or not and you’d never know that Miliband’s price freeze was an eye-catching highly cynical political ploy…a trick.

It is just curious how the BBC whilst mentioning the bare minimum of facts manages to ignore those facts and still push the idea that the companies are profiteering, that  price freeze is a good idea and that all this has nothing to do with green policies, or Ed Miliband.

Listening to the BBC you might just come away with the idea that the energy companies are ripping everyone off, that capitalism has failed again, and that the only answer is a good dose of socialist state intervention…a solution that the Public apparently finds attractive.

 

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41 Responses to Power To The People!

  1. Rantmandeux says:

    Having watched QT tonight it does appear that the public is prepared to swallow the lie that it is the companies that are ripping us off. The panellist peddled one of two stories.
    a). Yes the companies were ripping us off and the market was not working and hence the state needed to intervene. Expounded by Diane Abattoir.
    b). A freeze would not work because the companies would put up their prices before it was implemented and that once it ended prices would boomerang.
    It took two members of the audience to raise the issue of the green levelly, increasing commodity prices and that their profit margins were 5% the same as those of our supermarkets. They also pointed out that we have amongst the lowest energy prices in Europe; however they did not also point out that it is in countries such as Germany, where renewable energy has been most fervently pursued, that energy prices were amongst the highest in Europe.
    The Abattoir moved swiftly to denounce these members of the audience by stating in her usual banal populist way that prices in Europe had nothing to do with the situation here, which is about people dying here because they had to choose between eating and heating.
    Once again our political class creates a mess and then blames it on corporations and capitalism.
    There was no applause for the two contributors from the audience.
    By the by when issue education came up the Abattoir, when it was raised that she had sent her son to a private school, state that if she was having to make a decision today about his education she would be happy to send him to a state school given what Labour had done for education when in power. Now isn’t that a nice safe thing to say now.

       66 likes

    • Simon says:

      That racist pig is one of the most vile politicans we have. Can’t stand her hypocrisy on every subject and how she just lies about everything

         60 likes

    • Dave s says:

      Never watch this rubbish. But I am surprised that contrary views on energy policy were even allowed. Dimblelby must really do better.

         29 likes

    • lojolondon says:

      Actually, the public does not swallow the lie that companies are ripping us off. The QT audience on the Biased BBC is NOT in any way representative of the British public.

         0 likes

  2. Amounderness Lad says:

    Perhaps it’s time the energy and fuel companies started further itemising their bills, just as almost all businesses do with do with VAT charges, to give the public a better idea about just how much the green nonsense is costing us by way of Government enforced add ons.

    With vehicle fuel there is the added Excise Duties Tax along with the VAT meaning the Government gets around our times more out of each litre than the Oil Companies they accuse of being “greedy”.

    With the cost of power the Government enforced Green Grasp is about ten percent of the cost, then there is an extra five percent VAT and then there is an addition to most peoples bills as a “social charge” in order to help cover the cost of assistance to those who get help with their bills because of poverty, a group which will doubtless grow as Governments add ever more to the already discredited Green Vanity Taxes.

    Meanwhile the BBC and their Print Subsidiary will simply ignore the chunks the Tax Man extorts and keeps up the propaganda that it’s all the fault of those nasty Fascist Capitalist Fat Cats.

       59 likes

    • Amounderness Lad says:

      I forgot to mention another Government Imposed addition to our energy bills which will not turn up on any tax breakdown. All the little better than useless Arm Wavers both on shore in remote parts of the island and off shore, which makes them even more remote and difficult to access, have to be connected to the National Grid. That has to be done at the expense of the power suppliers, or more correctly, at our expense via our bills.

      As for the BBC’s gripe about the greedy power companies, intended to raise our blood pressure and distract us from the Tax Rip-off, once the power companies have paid out all their costs by way of buying their fuel and the maintenance of the links to our homes etc., the horrific profit they make amounts to about 5% of the bill. That compares with the ever so frugal Tax Grab of 11 or 12% plus the additional hidden Government imposed costs to keep their Green Fantasy going.
      It just shows who the Rip Off merchants are, and it ain’t the power companies.

         1 likes

  3. Phil Ford says:

    “…Even today the BBC continues to muddy the waters and distract attention from the real reasons for price rises.”

    Of course they do – common purpose trolls always try to stick to the agreed narrative, no matter the evidence against, therefore it is the ‘greedy’ energy companies who are entirely to blame for rising energy prices here in the UK and – as ‘Red Ed’ Miliband, the man most responsible for the legislation that now drives ‘renewables’ subsidies via everyone’s UK energy bills, would say: let me be absolutely clear here; sky-high energy prices are nothing at all to do with so-called ‘green taxes’. Oh no. Not a bit of it. Zilch. Nada. Not me, guv. Honest.

    The BBC will maintain this total fiction (that the grasping energy companies are ‘ripping us off’, as comrade Diane Abbott was repeatedly allowed to allege on last night’s QT) because telling the truth about ‘green’ subsidies is too unpalatable for the Agenda 21 Marxists both within the Corporation (who are all fully signed-up to the dominant climate change narratives) and beyond, such as government and NGOs with a vested interest in the Agenda’s aims (the wholesale destruction of Britain’s fossil fuel industries).

    Cameron and his sell-out cronies are a disgrace in this respect – they appear to have become fully compliant CAGW drones, having done nothing at all to dismantle the damage caused by the fiction of CAGW, indeed seeming now more than ever to be willing participants in the Great Lie this toxic doctrine promotes (but a cursory inspection of Cameron’s extremely pro-EU credentials reveals exactly why CAGW is a cause very close to ‘Call Me Dave’s’ heart. This man is not a Tory – and nobody should be fooled by any claims he might make to the contrary).

       46 likes

  4. Thoughtful says:

    ‘Over many years, policymakers themselves have failed to highlight adequately the cost to consumers of the policies they have pursued in government.’

    That’s an understatement ! The government has been downright secretive about its stealth taxes which it calls ‘levies’.

    “A small percentage? The BBC itself tells us that it is up to 11%….and as you can see from Ofgem’s figures that is £115 per year on your bill and set to rise…anything up to a total of£300.”

    WAY off the mark ! Have a listen to file on 4 available on the iPlayer!
    The BBC had to commission an outside agency to find exactly what these levies amount to, and they concluded it was 20% of the total bill. Then there’s VAT to add, so that make it around 30%

    When this is applied to the average bill it means that around £400 is being taken in taxes & ‘levies’
    By the end of the decade this will have increased to around £800 and by 2030 it will stand at an incredible £1600 !

    All presupposing that energy prices remain the same (which they won’t).

    Then there is the issue with the closure of coal fired power stations like Fiddlers Ferry & Drax, and the conversion of Drax B to bio fuel. The investment in renewables under the BLiar years has meant that we do not have a source of power on which we can rely.
    Rolling blackouts are not likely this winter, despite the press hysteria, but they are a very real possibility next year.

    File on 4 investigated the mess of nuclear power, with willing providers such as EDF stuck with successive governments completely incapable of making a decision and giving the green light.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03brkvp

    I recommend anyone with an interest listens to this. Not the usual BBC biased nonsense, it is however aimed at the commercial market, but the same issues apply to the domestic market too.

    Electricity Prices: A Shock to the System?
    Duration: 38 minutes
    First broadcast: Tuesday 01 October 2013
    The Government wants more wind power and nuclear energy to supply our electricity, but how well is it delivering that plan?
    In Scotland where conditions for renewable sources are good, there’s been a rush to cash in on generous subsidies for wind farms, but the infrastructure can’t cope so companies are also being paid handsomely to dump the energy they produce, and, deals which include subsidies are being concluded behind closed doors between Government officials and the nuclear industry for a new generation of power stations. What’s this going to add to our fuel bills? Allan Urry investigates.

       20 likes

  5. George R says:

    “Boycott greedy energy firm, urges minister: But defiant SSE blames its £111-a-year tariff increase on Labour’s green taxes”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2453472/Boycott-greedy-energy-firm-SSE-urges-Tory-energy-minister-Michael-Fallon.html?ico=news^headlines

       22 likes

  6. OldBloke says:

    “Boycott greedy energy firm” urges minister. You know, these politicians really do put their feet into their mouth don’t they? Just look up this guy on Wiki. If this is the best the Tory party can offer, is it no wonder the electorate haven’t got a clue as to who to vote for?

       15 likes

  7. Doublethinker says:

    This row is a good example of the way in which the BBC manipulates the news of the country to suit their own agendas. In the current cost of energy debate it has a) massively promoted Ed Miliband as a champion of the people, b) massively downplayed the impact of green energy taxes, c) allowed claims that energy companies are ripping us off to go unchallenged, d) is blaming the government for our lack of energy infrastructure but not mentioning the fact that the problems lie with 13 years of Labour misrule.
    Of course these are just the current examples, earlier this week the BBC effectively buried one of the great scandals of the last 20 years when it quietly drew a veil over the OECD education report which again lays massive blame at Labour’s door.
    The BBC constantly pushed its own liberal left agenda and is an active player in British politics rather than an unbiased observer as its charter demands. By doing so it undermines British democracy and does great damage to this country. The BBC is must either undergo rapid root and branch reform but I doubt that this can be achieved in such a biased organisation and so the next Tory administration must abolish it.

       41 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      You need to listen to the file on 4 program with the link on my post to hear the impact of ‘green’ policies, and what a mess they have made of our energy supplies.

      Yes the mainstream BBC output may have done what you say, but take the time to listen to the program on iPlayer and you’ll see a different side.

         8 likes

      • GCooper says:

        But File On Four broadcasts to a minute audience and is a tiny, barely audible, whisper in the roaring cacophony of Green propaganda spewed out to the masses hourly by the quisling corporation.

           16 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          That isn’t the point. Listen to the program and learn what really is going on.
          It’s pointless carping on about the biased stuff that’s broadcast every day if you don’t listen to the stuff which does support your views!
          Yes I know it’s 38 minutes long, and people are busy, but I promise you that it is worth spending the time to listen and to relate that to other output.

             4 likes

          • Wild says:

            I have yet to see a programme on the BBC that critically examines the New Labour legacy. It is the BBC equivalent of don’t mention the War.

            Pick a topic. Heath? Education? Foreign Policy? Economic Policy? Standards in Public Life? The Politicization of the Civil Service? Immigration? EU rebate? Growth of the Public Sector? You name it. Any discussion?

            Nope.

            OK so it has gone down the memory hole (just as the record of the Labour government before New Labour went down the BBC memory hole) but what about the Labour Party of today?

            Any discussion of the role which public sector Trade Unions play in determining what they decide? Does it matter if Labour MP’s are largely funded by Public Sector unions? How about the shift to the Left. Which bit of Socialism does Ed Miliband believe in given that he inspired by his father but is not a Marxist? Any illumination from the BBC?

            Nope,

            So what do they spend their time talking about? They talk about whatever Labour Party Press Office want them to talk about that day. What topics do they avoid? Everything else.

            The BBC does not inform, it is a squirt of ink, it is obfuscation and partisan distraction.

            If you were to reduce the entire output of BBC news and current affairs into two words it would be Vote Labour or alternatively Hate Tories.

            Other than that the factual contribution which the BBC make to the political debate is approximately zero.

               19 likes

            • Thoughtful says:

              I don’t agree with you Wild! The BBC seem to regard BLiar as the second most hated politician since Margaret Thatcher.
              I have frequently heard criticism of him and Nu Liebour as if they are a separate entity from todays nu improved original Liebour.
              Tell me, have you bothered to listen to the file on 4 program ?

                 0 likes

              • Wild says:

                My impression is that if somebody talks about Blair or Brown the BBC change the subject.

                Given that the present coalition has been in power for only a few years, and Labour politicians were in power since 1997, a little reflection on that government, and the consequences of their policies (our inheritance so to speak) would be nice, especially as the BBC seem very keen for them to return to power.

                “Tell me, have you bothered to listen to the file on 4 program?”

                If you think it is a good programme I will try to listen to it in the next day or so. It is not a question of “bother” it is a question of taking time out to listen to a BBC programme – on the basis of your recommendation.

                   11 likes

                • GCooper says:

                  It’s the fact that the BBC occasionally makes a programme that doesn’t follow the party line that ‘isn’t the point’.

                  That’s the way the Corporation likes to work. It tosses a tiny bone.to objectors and claims it is balanced for doing so.

                     6 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        You should watch the spat between the Labour MP Graham Stringer who pointed out the idiotic contradictions of the Climate Change Act to the Tory MP Greg Barker. It shows you that a Labour MP can be vastly more intelligent than a Tory, if he is a scientist, trying to debate science, on a science committee, surrounded by non-scientists. Stringer asked questions that the useful idiots had no clue as how to answer.

           5 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          you have a link?

             0 likes

          • Richard Pinder says:

            It was on the BBC Parliament channel, it will probably be repeated or may be available on the BBC Parliament ipod thing or on the science committee website ipod thing or whatever it is called.

               0 likes

  8. Dave s says:

    Markets never fail in the long term. Yes they can suffer real distortions ( the deriverative nonsense) but they always correct in the end.
    Such a distortion is the green energy policy. It will correct but not before the liberal idiots have been dragged kicking and screaming into the real world.
    Drax has just ordered a large number of biomass wagons.The world is awash with coal and this is supposed to be sensible. For the wagon makers maybe but the rest of the economy has to pay for this lunacy.

       12 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      They have to take account of having to close coal fired power stations, and I am sure that alternatives only have a poor reputation for cost-effectiveness and productivity because they have rolled out these developments prematurely because of the benefits of the subsidy scam.

         4 likes

  9. Old Goat says:

    There was some bloke, this morning, on “Toady” saying “let the polluter pay”, and “we should stop emissions”, and other “carbon” crap.

    They steadfastly push this CO2 nonsense, still, (erroneously referring to it as “carbon”) even when most people have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no evidence that man-produced CO2 (or any other CO2, for that matter) has “warmed the planet catastrophically” or will continue to do so. CO2 has NEVER been a pollutant, and is essential to life. Why do they keep spinning this rubbish?

    And renewable energy is NOT becoming cheaper, as this fool alleged, either.

       31 likes

  10. johnnythefish says:

    Just another example of the BBC guiding public opinion in the Common Purpose direction by abusing the huge power inherent in its 70% market share.

    Maybe people will start waking up when the lights go out, they’ve got no heating and their companies are forced to lay them off or work 3-day weeks. Even then you suspect the BBC and Labour will come up with another fairy story pointing a finger at the Tories and big business rather than the pointless and costly fight against a mythical threat that they have done their utmost to perpetuate.

       29 likes

    • Leo says:

      Well they will definitely say that the lights going out simply proves that we need more windmills.

         11 likes

  11. richard D says:

    Funniest comment I’ve seen in a while regarding those CAGW moaners who want to return us to the stone age…..

    “OK, let’s start charging windfarms for using the wind then. It’s a public resource, no?”

    h/t ret_ward on Bishop Hill

       5 likes

  12. OldBloke says:

    We get charged for using water that falls from the sky, don’t we? Just a thought.

       2 likes

    • Chop says:

      To be fair, if you washed and drank out of a bucket in the back yard full of rain water, and were charged for it, you could make that sort of comparison! 🙂

         1 likes

      • OldBloke says:

        The water charges are so high down here in the South West, I do wash from a bucket of rain water in the yard. A blow torch comes in handy in the winter. 😎

           4 likes

  13. stuart says:

    these energy companys are behaving worse than a mexican drug cartel with ripping of people every year with these price increases,notice how they never increase prices in the summer when the wholesales prices come down.to me that is just criminal what they are doing,i dont care who is to blame , i all i want and the rest of us customers is to get some fairness and stop this yearly rip off when the weather starts getting cold and they hike up the prices,these crooks claim they dont behave like cartels,funny that when one puts the prices up they all follow like a cartel.there are 6 energy companys serving us at the moment,if they really cared about the customers and wanted to bring the energy prices down why dont just 1 energy company wait till the other 5 put there prices up then freeze there prices or even bring them down hence they put the other 5 greedy energy companys out of business while attracting millions of new customers,that would increase there profits and keep the shareholders happy,but these cartels will never do that because they are greedy shameless bastards of the worst kind.

       4 likes

    • Jagman 84 says:

      +1. No different than for the price of road fuels.

         1 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      come on Stuart SSE were losing money on the price of domestic fuel, they had no choice but to pass on the price rises!

      We have only 2 weeks gas supply in the UK and that probably includes the gas tankers which deliver it. All it needs is one of the Muslim trouble spots to flare up and we’re all in the dark & shivering !

      If instead of the government deciding to decommission sites like Canvey island they increased storage companies could buy gas when it was cheap, and store it until needed.

      It’s sad though that the companies are being blamed rather than the government whose direct fault it is. They are even trying to blame the oil companies for the cost of petrol when we all know it’s so loaded with tax that the actual cost is tiny by comparison.

      It’s even more sad that the easily led believe them!

         3 likes

      • OldBloke says:

        Also, don’t forget that an awful lot of our money is tied up in pension funds that invest heavily in these power companies. All very well demanding cuts (did I really say cuts?) in prices and freeze this and freeze that, but I bet everyone on here would kick off if there was nothing in their pension fund at retirement. Funny how the BBC miss this out of their equations.

           2 likes

  14. Richard Pinder says:

    The main problem that scientists have after complaining to the BBC, is that the Media shows little interest in the results of the complaint if the BBC clears itself by dismissing the complaint. It seem that there are now thousands of these complaints from scientists.

    The conclusion is that scientists will have to do their own Journalism. Usually you can post articles on the internet, but apart from newsletters for students or Mensa members, there aren’t many printed publications not under left-wing censorship. The left-wing control of science reporting on the BBC is evident in the fact that the BBC has no scientific investigative journalists, who could possibly easily become off-message by simply investigating the IPCC, Met Office, Tyndall Centre, Royal Society or the University of East Anglia.

    The BBC’s coverage of Climate Change is dominated by Journalists with no scientific qualifications, who then turn out to be Environmental activists, some responsible for that seminar of what the BBC called “the best scientific experts“, which it turned out that only three climate scientists where present, and that these three where only qualified in measuring the temperature, the seminar of 28 was made up of environmental activists without a single causational or attribution climate scientist present, not a single atmospheric physicist or solar scientist was present at that seminar. Now, for some reason, that fact has not even been seen as important enough to appear in the right wing press? So even the right-wing press are protecting the BBC for some reason.

       10 likes

    • London Calling says:

      With the BBC so dominant not only in news reporting, but in the employment of journalists, it must be career suicide to move out of line with “approved thought”. Even if you are not on the BBC payroll, you may want to be at some time in the future. You need to feed your kids.

      The biggest disappointment is Murdoch, who at least has the potential to create an alternative source of news and journalist employment. Instead it is left to the completely schizophrenic Daily Mail and Telegraph (remember eco-bonkers Lady Haw Haw “Louise Gray”?) , who still give attention to press releases from Big Green. Sky is a disaster, as is ITV. Nothing “fair and Balanced” exists, like Fox. Too many advertising sponsors have been infected by Green Marketing, like the risible Marks & Spencer. Jobs for the Left continues to dominate reporting, which is why we are lied to daily by the hacks, fed a on a left-leaning diet of Charity and Think Tank briefings.

         7 likes

      • GCooper says:

        You’re right about Sky – it’s no better than the BBC.

        As I’ve said before, at least a part of that is due to the fact that most trained TV news staff are ex-BBC and so thoroughly steeped in post-60s ‘right on’ thought (if it can be called that).
        .It always makes me smile to hear Left wingers moaning about Murdoch and Sky when the channel is just as miserably biased as the BBC.

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      • Richard Pinder says:

        The Daily Express has had articles about the work of Henrik Svensmark and Piers Corbyn, but then seem to have forgotten the science, and then gone back to disagreeing with the dogma without going into the science.

        The battle between believers and sceptics of an assumption is won by those who prove whether that assumption is right or wrong, therefore if Nikolov & Zeller, have proved it wrong, and Svensmark & Kirkby have proved what the real cause is, then the sceptics have won the dogmatic battle without realising it.

           2 likes