On 26 Sep 2013 at 12:15am Red Fred wrote:
The power companies are threatening to bring the country to its knees if a future Labour government regulates price rises.Who the hell do these bully boys think they are?Renationalise the flaming lot of them, say I.
On 26 Sep 2013 at 1:54am Kropotkin wrote:
And water, and transport too
On 26 Sep 2013 at 8:15am Flying picket wrote:
And let's not forget car manufacturers
On 26 Sep 2013 at 1:58pm Slarty wrote:
Isn't there just a hint of bully boy tactics from a potential future government telling a company that they must not put up thier prices? I'm fairly sure their staff will want pay increases, the cost of fuel to run their vehicles will go up, their rates will increase (but of course the government wouldn't cap their income) etc.
Whilst on paper it appears like a good vote grabbing idea (and it would help me out financially I'm sure) it is not a policy that I agree with due to restrictions of trade issues.
On 26 Sep 2013 at 2:08pm RipOff Britain wrote:
So you would let the utilities charge what they like would you?How about water charges at £10,000per annum.?Well why not, we wouldn'nt want to restrict these companies from ripping us off would we?
On 26 Sep 2013 at 2:33pm Slarty wrote:
Think you may have missed my point.
I don't think it is the poisition of the government to say what can be charged for what. As I said, it would benefit me if a freeze was introduced, but do you really think it is the governments position to say what a business can charge for their goods? There is an open market in "Power Companies" so the competition should self regulate (with price fixing laws being enough to maintain fairness). This is unlike water companies where there is no open market, so that is a very bad example you chose and, under these situation (also trains for example), a regulator should, and is there to stop price rip-off from companies that hold monopolies in areas.
On 26 Sep 2013 at 2:55pm Ripoff Britain wrote:
No it is you that is missing the point.The major power companies operate as a cartel, they collude with each and keep other other operators out.This is a rigged market not a free market.We all know what is going on apart from you it seems!
On 26 Sep 2013 at 3:50pm Slarty wrote:
OK, obviously I don't know what's going on. I would have thought that Ofgem and the FSA would have regulated the competition enough but obviously I'm wrong.
However,
I still do not think that the government of this country should dictate the price of any service or goods except where a monopoly exist. I'm sticking to that opinion as I have not seen any reason why I should change my mind. If there is price fixing going on as you suggest then there is already policies and proceedures in place to stop this.
I wont change your mind, so there we go.
On 27 Sep 2013 at 7:54am bastian wrote:
When companies didn't have share holders to pay off they used to do an excellent job and pay their workers a fair wage, that was back in the days of national ownership, when we owned the silver, not private indeviduals.
There are somethings which ought not be privately owned, they are to important to our needs, gas, electric, rail and water are all an example of things that are infastructure, along with the army, police, fire, hospitals and schools. Any country without these are considered backwards, and yet we have allowed our services yo be taken out of our hands and put into the hands of a few rich men who now suck us dry and threaten to cut off that supply if we complain...that is the definition of a bully, we are like junkies desperate for our fix and they know it.
On 27 Sep 2013 at 10:23am Speek wrote:
whyc coanlt I post/.
On 27 Sep 2013 at 5:57pm Annette Curtin-Twitcher wrote:
Funny, isn't it, when the miners put the lights out they were accused of holding the country to ransom. Now the energy suppliers are proposing doing the very same.
Plus ca change, etc.
On 28 Sep 2013 at 4:13pm bastian wrote:
Slarty, this is not a critisim, but I can only assume that you are not old enough to remember a time when most essential companies were national, belonging to the government, employing thousenads of poeple to do a brilliant job, where the money that came back to the government from the utlillity went back into infastructure, not inot a nother mans pocket. It worked, private services are cheap skate, they are not even joined up. If one man digs a hole, it is another company who does the work, then another company who fills it in. we have no accountability from one company and no responsibility either. And yes there is price fixing and yes the whole point is to play off against each other so keep prices up, not down ( in a similar way to the unions that everyone says they dispised in the 1970's).
On 29 Sep 2013 at 8:29pm Clifford wrote:
I agree with everything you say bastian, usually do, but not about the unions. Labour is sold at a price and there's nothing wrong with organising to get a good price - what has happened since the Tories broke the unions is that the proportion of wealth going to capital has increased and the amount going to labour has decreased. That's why Thatcher broke the unions and the media propaganda machine vilified - the wealthy objected to the workers getting a fairer share pf the wealth they produced.
On 30 Sep 2013 at 2:14am wrote:
Slarty, workers don't get pay rises any more, they certainly don't get one just because the business' profits are up.
That's not how business works, if it did then middle and working classes would have seen wage increases over the last 30 years.
On 30 Sep 2013 at 4:31pm bastian wrote:
thank you for your support Clifford, I think you may have got hold of the end of my rather toung in cheek stick, I truely support the unions and am a member myself; but in our new neo -con world the unions are seen as aphorent and the cause of all the trouble in the country.. if you ever say a word upholding the unions someone will quote how the unions "held us to ransom" in the 1970's, it was meant as an example of how they are viewed today with the twist that capital is far worse but seem to get away with it.
Thing is..how do we change it!