Victoria Derbyshire had a bit of a melt down today, (around 11:00) but what’s new?, when interviewing Ian Peters, managing director of British Gas Residential Energy, dropping all pretence of professionalism, preferring instead to harangue him for having the temerity to put prices up.
When he expressed sympathy and understanding for customers she berated him and told him ‘Don’t do it then!’…later claiming that ‘you don’t care a hoot about your customers…how can you say that!’….despite him explaining in detail exactly what his company does to try and reduce bills for the ‘vulnerable’…saying no one has been cut off in the 4 years he has been in charge.
‘Dividends’ are clearly a problem for Derbyshire….an evil capitalist idea that leeches money out of a company to give to the undeserving rich…like perhaps her retired grandmother whose pension company invests in British Gas and the like and provides capital for investment and growth of the company and expects a return on that investment…to pay out pensions?
Finally Derbyshire suggests this might all be a response to ‘the price freeze proposed by the leader of one political party.’
Does she mean Labour? Why so coy about naming it?
Shelagh Fogarty, a refreshing down to earth change to the shrewish, howling Derbyshire, also tackled the same subject, interviewing Labour’s Caroline Flint.
Unfortunately Fogarty wasn’t well enough briefed to offer more than generalised questions and Flint was able to pump out well rehearsed reams of ‘facts and figures’ which Fogarty couldn’t challenge in any depth. Having said that she then brought on two experts who comprehensively panned Flint’s claims….so some balance there…but it would be nice to see a BBC presenter with the ability to challenge the likes of Flint themselves.
Fogarty , as usual, also had on Martin Lewis, financial expert, who filled in many gaps that the BBC itself studiously avoids (He also did a comprehensive breakdown in a previous programme of the graduate loan scheme….which again seems a mystery to BBC presenters)…like the fact that Miliband’s price freeze is a con…if you want to freeze your price you can, and not just for 20 months but until 2017…and it will still save you money even with a small premium to pay….also there is no termination fee…so you can leave the plan at any time at no cost….these are some of the fixed tariffs from EDF as an example based on a dual fuel package.
Ed Miliband’s latest big idea, the energy price freeze, based on his claim of a ‘living standards crisis’ gets an easy ride on the BBC despite being roundly slated in most other analyses….but a look back in the BBC archives brings up something interesting from Labour’s recent past when in government….a situation that pretty much exactly mirrors today’s……energy prices going up, dividends going up, and demands for price freezes and profit windfall taxes.
As reported by the BBC in 2008:
The “big six” energy suppliers increased their shareholder dividend payouts by 19% last year, according to new research.
The suppliers paid £1.64bn in dividends in 2007, £257m more than the year before, a study commissioned by the Local Government Association found.
The news comes shortly after Gordon Brown said there would be no one-off fuel payment to help poorer households.
Instead, ministers are likely to focus on new energy-efficiency measures.
The research found that Centrica upped its payout to shareholders to £478m from £409m in 2006 while EDF increased its dividend from £105m to £110m.
Meanwhile, Scottish and Southern Energy’s dividend rose to £474m from £400m and RWE Npower saw a jump from £37m to £250m.
E.ON paid £240m worth of dividends in 2007, after paying nothing in 2006.
The Government has come under increasing pressure from trade unions and Labour backbenchers to help poorer families deal with the rising cost of energy via a one-off tax on the profits of utility companies.
Thus far, Chancellor Alistair Darling has resisted the calls, saying this would make the market less competitive.
But Tony Woodley, joint leader of the two-million strong Unite union, said the government needed to “legislate to cap prices from [those] greedy utilities so that we help the ordinary families in our country”.
What’s notable?
The ‘Big Six’ were around then…so where was the competitive market under Labour?
Gordon Brown said there would be no one-off fuel payment to help poorer households…preferring instead to impose energy efficiency measures.
Alistair Darling says such government interventions would make the market less competitive not more as Miliband claims he wants to do.
Also….a price freeze is proposed by none other than Miliband’s own paymaster and puller of strings, the Unite Union.
And now we have that very policy proposed by Ed Miliband…bought and paid for by the Unite Union.
I guess now they have their puppet in place they are pulling the strings and are deciding what Labour’s policies will be.
What is the point of the BBC and its enormous resources if it doesn’t use them to provide its journalists with the information necessary to tear into the lying, posturing, bullying politicians who set out to deceive the public in order to get and hang on to power whilst trying to avoid taking responsibility for taking a decision and its, more often than not, disastrous outcomes.
I think that the unions and the labour party have conspired over the past 13 years that they were ruining our country and the past 3 years that the coalition has been doing something at least not as ruinous, to reduce the welbeing of their union members. If they had really had their members’ interests at heart, they would have opposed the mass immigration of people who have essentially taken away the livlihood of the paid up members of the unions. But why would the leaders of the unions care a toss about their members when their future is secure, thanks to the subscriptions and in some cases funds from the EU. It would be a day to behold when the bbc conducted and indepth investigation of the unions in our country and the part they have played in reducing us to vassal status in the EU. Maybe the union gauleiters (of the EU) would care to enlighten us?
Well sat in a hotel in Edinburgh with the news on and I am told. By the bbc that the head of British gas is in for a 2 million pound pay rise, fully support VD and I would have mono problem seeing this mans address published in which to allow people to knock on his door and express their displeasure
It was obvious that after the Miliband moron announced a future Labour government would freeze energy prices, the Energy companies would start to hedge their bets by starting to raise prices before any legislation was in place.
As usual the BBC is now giving time to Miliband to claim he is the strong leader who will stand up to them and do not question that this rise might be in response to his electioneering.
Just like Gordon Crown announced to the world that he was shortly going to unload vast quantities of gold onto the market to finance his Ponzi Schemes. By doing that he warned everybody involved there was going to be glut in the availability of gold meaning the price dropped ready to account for it. The result was that Brown succeeded in reducing the value of the gold we held at the very time he was selling it off. He might as well have put up a big sign, “Get your gold at knock down prices here, queue up here, there’s plenty to go round!” Sillybland has made the same stupid error by, in effect, telling the Energy Companies, “Get your price rises in now and stock up your profits so you can survive the famine I intend to create if I gain power.”
The average child has more sense.
Sillybland has made the same stupid error by, in effect, telling the Energy Companies, “Get your price rises in now and stock up your profits so you can survive the famine I intend to create if I gain power.”
Of course he knew they would raise prices as soon as he made the announcement – he wants that to happen because massive price rises will then be happening under the Tory led coalition’s watch. Talk about giving themselves even more ammo against the Tories come 2015. He ain’t silly, he’s a conniving little cn.ut. of a traitor to the people of this country. The Tories have failed to pin massive price rises which occurred post 1997 onto the Labour party, and they sure as hell, with the BBC’s assistance, not pin anything on Labour come 2015.
for the first time ever and probably the last.i am with vicky all the way in the way she beasted the spokesman for the greedy energy company this morning and i was quite disgusted at the way shelagh sucked up to british gas and almost came across as she was the spokeswoman for the energy companys,there you ,it is not all about attacking the bbc editorial content and there presenters and on this occasion i will give vicky credit where it is due.
Did not hear it but if she did good. Only thing is Victoria ‘beasts’ everyone who wears a collar and tie and does not conform to her hypocritical ‘down with the people’ agenda.
stuart obviously wants to return to the good old days of Wilson & Heath with their price controls (unless he favours a more soviet style of economy). Perhaps he is too young to remember how unsuccessful they were.
I expect you believed the government went it told you there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq too!
There certainly had been. After all Saddam had used them on more than one occasion. However, they were easily spirited out of the country: where did Assad (Iraq’s neighbour) get the WMD from that he used recently.
The WMD was proven to be a lie as was the assertion that they could be deployed against British target within 20 minutes.
Syria has more than enough access to chemical precursors to make its own.
That was a lie, as were many other things from that discredited shambles of a government, but there was more than a little reason to suppose that Saddam still had the WMD that he had already well used.
Where do you think the Syrian “Rebels” that are using them on dissenters got theirs from? 😉
Yes! Derbyshire resorted to the old, ‘How much does your CEO earn?’
Actually he / she probably EARNS what he / she EARNS, unlike Derbyshire. What does she get paid from the public purse a matter of interest?
BTW: In the four years that British Gas haven’t cut anyone off, how many people have been prosecuted for non-payment of the BBC Tax?
Perhaps 10% of criminal prosecutions resulting from non payment of the telly tax?
I think that the energy companies make a profit of less than 5% of their sales. In comparison most Pharmaceutical companies, admittedly a more risky sector , make 20 to 30% return on sales and supermarket chains around 5%. The world price of energy keeps rising well above inflation, the government puts green taxes on the bill, it isn’t surprising therefore that household bills keep on increasing.
That the BBC gives anytime airtime to E Miliband’s price freeze for 20 months proposal, is extreme bias. A moments consideration shows it to be an empty gesture, the companies will increase prices before it comes into force and after it ends. At the very best a household might avoid paying out £200 to 300 for the 20 months. But it will scare off the very people we need to invest in our energy infrastructure and so we will all pay more in the future.
Of course the BBC know this and so do Labour, but they have put their heads together and are using this fatuous proposal to beat the Tories with and to dupe the British people.
Energy companies do rip everyone off but it is all to do with government policy. Miliband is a disgrace and if the bbc was impartial they would be looking into him causing the price rises as energy minister in 2008 and why green taxes are causing rising prices. A.Mind and EU Referendum have loads on this at the moment if anyone wants to read it
A profit margin of 5% isn’t a rip off is it?
Overall energy prices a re inflated by ‘green taxes’, as such this is a rip-off; whether that is included in the energy company profits or not is beside the point.
That said I think energy costs are lower in comparison to and as part of average take home pay than in the 70s and 80s (not sure, anyone confirm?) anyway and the whole shitstorm is just another way to bash private ownership etc.
The clip is at 63:30 and not 11:00 !
Totally Naive, and without understanding of the subject, or even the way business works. This lightweight should not be given serious interview work as she is clearly not up to it.
Suggesting that we live in a fantasy world where companies should subsidise prices for customers just highlights the pink tinted world left wing thickos inhabit!
No serious questions were posed, if it had been me being interviewed I’d have savaged her!
We have the cheapest gas prices in Europe, despite government taxes what more do people want? It’s sad that so many thick people swallow the blame dodgers lie that it’s down to the greedy energy companies when they are raking off 6 times as much as the profits of all the energy companies put together !
The problem is people don’t know any of this because the likes of the bbc aren’t telling them. And if I even try to mention it to people (and no I’m not a boring ranter) I see their eyes glaze over and they go on talking about the soaps from the night before.
Is just a fact of life from the X-Factor generation and everything being dumbed down
“…companies when they are raking off 6 times as much as the profits of all the energy companies put together !”
who is?
the government in tax which it calls ‘levies’.
Yep, agree, I had misread your comment….now with a bit or Real Ale inside me I can see the meaning 🙂
Saw Caroline Flint on tv – vacuous parrot would make a good Dictaphone. Remember how she slated the Labour Leadership when she didn’t get a cabinet post flouncing around saying she was only brought into Government by Blair to add glamour or words to that effect. Well sadly for her, her trump card seems to be well and truly busted so she will have to rely on her incredibly sharp intellect — Doh!
Here are a few questions I think she should have asked:
How much is the market open to manipulation by state owned energy giants such as the Russian Gazprom?
How much of an effect has the ‘dash for gas’ for electricity generation had on prices?
Why do you not highlight the massive amounts of government taxation in customers bills?
Is it not the case that the UK simply doesn’t have sufficient storage capacity to be able to buy gas when it’s cheap and store it until needed and that we have as a consequence to pay the highest rates when we need it?
(UK has just 15 days storage compared to 96 in France and 122 in Germany)
How much of an effect has the closure of nuclear generation in Japan following Fukushima and their move to generation by gas had on prices.
If energy prices are indeed affected by the market and the cost of carrying it has risen by 2% why have standing charges on fixed price schemes risen by 30% ?
Just a few probing questions an informed interviewer might have asked.
It will be interesting to see if the Energy chiefs will be given a Party Political broadcast, as they did for Millipede on next weeks Watchdog.
like perhaps her retired grandmother whose pension company invests in British Gas
————————————————————————
Or herself even, with the BBC pension scheme owning £25mill of shares in British Gas’ parent company, Centrica.
Of course the pension scheme only pays out to employees – it is not clear to me whether Drearyshire, despite being clearly ’employed’ by the BBC, is actually an ’employee’ of the BBC.
And it is irrelevant whether anyone is ‘with Vicky’ on this one or not – she is meant to be impartial.
She is probably one of the ‘bogus’ self employed, i.e. for the purposes of tax Income tax and N.I. avoidance only . like many, if not most , of R5’s presenters
I’d like to see the old ‘contract of service’ Vs. ‘contract for services’ test applied to all BBC journo’s
What Beeboids keep quiet about:-
“Red Ed’s great green obsession… and the real reason YOUR bill has gone through the roof: The hidden subsidies each household pays every year thanks to Miliband’s laws”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2456760/Red-Eds-great-green-obsession–real-reason-YOUR-gone-roof-The-hidden-subsidies-household-pays-year-thanks-Milibands-laws.html
Never heard her as yet but Victoria Derbyshire can’t have been all bad. She was born in Lancashire and studied at Preston Polytechnic before she was brainwashed by Al BBC
I forgot to add…But where the f@*k did the BBC find Stacy Dooley!
Thank you for that George R – a much needed corrective.
Why people are wittering about ‘greedy energy companies’ when the real villains of the story are the ‘greens’ (including Milliband and Cameron) I can’t imagine.
One way the success of Milliband’s vacuous thinking on this subject can be measured (although not a very good way) is in the difference it has made in the polls.
The latest opinion poll I saw last night showed that Labour and the Conservatives were neck and neck on 35% each.
I’d say on that basis that 65% of the country are currently unconvinced by his argument. The BBC, as usual, are reflecting the position of the minority in their reporting.
Victoria Derbyshire makes Radio 5 in the mornings a no go area for me.
She really is dreadful, and I can’t believe that the BBC can’t get someone better for a morning national radio show.
She reminds me of Garth Crooks on BBC TV sport. He’s obviously hopeless but seems to have a job for life.
Let’s face it, everyone on BBC has a job for life.
The BBC is not there for you, the viewer/funder, it is there for the Droids.
It’s a public sector thing.
What an idiot this Cameron,he is absolutely useless and one must wonder how he was able to make kids. He’s no balls against energy companies and asks British people to check on other deals. No wonder the Russians call us a little island. He has no leadership skills and everyone admits Blair was the best leader this country ever seen in 50 years.
Rick, I assume you had /*sarc*/ full on there. Your last sentence is a belter. 😀
I wouldn’t assume he had. 🙁
You have a weird sense of humour, and I do assume you are joking as Blair wasn’t fit to lick Maggies boots.
Are you on medication?
Or not, when you should be?
look will,whatever your politacal views are and i am a ukip supporter,the one thing we can all agree on whatever your politics are that these greedy selfish energy comanys are taking the piss out of us,remember this as well.last year 24,000 people died in this country mainly pensioners due to not being able to heat there homes,that is a national discrace and at the very least i would put it to these energy companys that they guilty of corperate manslaughter by letting these poor pensioners suffer from freezing to death every winter.
They don’t got punk chew asian over at ukip then?
Or any spelling skills.
It’s really depressing to read stuff like this. You are blaming the energy companies for what the political class has directly brought about and in doing so you are doing exactly what the Greens and the Left (and the BBC) hope you will do: blaming the wrong people.
The energy companies make around the same percentage profit on their activities as most successful businesses.
They don’t control the price of Russian gas and they don’t make themselves close down coal-fired power stations at a time when the world price of coil has dropped by 20 to 30 per cent!
Yes, we are being ripped-off. But the people who should be dangling from lampposts are the ignorant fools who voted for the obscene Climate Change Act – which, tragically, was almost all of them.
The last paragraph of this Article is without doubt one of the best summaries I have seen for sometime, certainly with regards to the BBC.
For this organisation to lambast a private concern where the user is not compelled by force of law to purchase their services, whether they use them or not, and not perform one of their basic functions, to inform, is damming indeed.
The BBC have moved on from bank-bashing to energy firm-bashing.
Who’s next, I wonder, in their student angst-filled anti-capitalism campaign?
All in support of the Labour cause, of course.