Centrica 1bn profits - British Gas 35% price rise...

[JonB]

Is this just not taking the piss completely?

I'm going to go against all my political principles and swing completely to the left and suggest that it's about time the g'ment swept in and took control of the energy situation in a part private, part state owned entity, where gas and electricity are made not-for-profit.

I think it's disgusting how Centrica claimed the price hike was to increase "reasonable" profits. Could someone enlighten me how 1bn isn't reasonable? It's not even justifiable.

The only happy tale here is that we are not with British Gas, hopefully at least half their customers will talk with their feet and leave!

Feel sorry for the old dears and those on low incomes this winter. What's the betting it will be the coldest for 20 years?
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Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it?s worth.

[Polo]

Add to that the reported 250k spent on a jolly to discuss the price hike.

Cucking Funts.
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My mum smells your fingers

[tatters]

Dont blame the companies there just doing what they do and that is to make a profit for there shareholders not look after the public. the ones to blame as always is the government there the ones who can put limts on prices and can nationalize companies "state owned"
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[Hetzer]

Water, gas and electric should be nationalised utilities. Private companies making fat profits from fundamentally necessary human needs is an obscenity, more so when those companies are charging prices that are actually causing fatalities.

There's an argument there for food too. Basic foods, the minimum needed to support life, should also be state-provided on a cost basis.

Same for clothes.

Same for housing.

Same for legally required insurance.

There's a time and place for private profit, and they should certainly not be involved in fundamental neccesities, especially when the so-called capitalist system of free competition is so obviously corrupt and non-functional.

Every single CEO of these companies should be dragged from his office and summarily executed for being a greedy, lying, cheating, self-serving sub-human degenerate scumbag.
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Kris]

The people we should least trust with the essentials are the government Hetz, you at least should realise this.

Can you imagine what horrors would unfold if NuLabourrrr were in charge of energy prices? Eek!
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[Hetzer]

[Skudd]

Hetzer is now a Government Stooge.
You go stick it to the Man.

Obviously the utility companies are not paying enough tax.
Price capping would be one way to go, but if the Government capped prices how would they increase tax revenue?

I say Mud huts for all and eat what you catch. Bring back human migration, survival of the most cunning. If your hut floods move up hill, if you have no water move closer to the river, if you can't feed your family don't have one. Sod the pandas, what do they taste like?
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[Itchy]

I'm going against the grain here but

YOU ALL FAIL

British gas and centrica invested about 60-90bn in exploration rigs and pipes. You know investing in future capacity....

1bn out of 95bn is about 1% return on investment , you put 100bn in a bank you get 6bn at the very least.

If they didn't invest this 100bn there would be no gas in the future.

If you look at the annual reports carefully BG's residential gas profits are wayy down I recall it being in the region of 17% down from a year ago.



Oh and its the government's fault,

if you compare gas wholesale prices against gold , not currency , its value has barely moved. The price 'increases' are due to the devaluation of the currency , if you look at M4 since 1997 there is at least 350% more money in the system than there was a decade ago , which means the value of the £ has dropped which means you need more of them for the same nominal value. If only the government would hike interest rates to 17.5% inflation would cease unfortunately 10 million people would lose their homes.


And to further add the boot in ....

Nationalisation does NOT mean cheaper, in that the motivation for companies = profit and future profit hence investment.

Governments are wasteful , in the council they sign cheques with a stamp , huge cheques since its not their money, while at all private firms any £ claim over X amount needs to be documented and receipts be handed in.

There is NO incentive for things to be more efficient in government as either way the money comes in.

And another thing

There MUST be a return to attract capital, if banks give 0% interest would you put money into them?. Joint stock companies sell their paper on a promise of a return , they do this so they can raise money to fund their big projects, if companies offer no dividend they have difficulties raising money to finance future profit projects.



And as a final thing:

We live in a mild country anyway, and have become decadent, I see people walking around in their homes in T shirt in winter, when such a thing was unheard of in the 60s and 70s , in the 80s even.

Hence it is the recession knife , just cleaning up inefficiencies.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[Itchy]

[Itchy]

[Dom_]

I got my contract through the post this morning.

I start as an apprentice for centrica this october.

[Hetzer]

Itchy, everything you say pre-supposes humans are inherently selfish creatures who are motivated by nothing but self interest.

Unfortunately you are correct (for the majority of cases).

In the current capitalist system that motivation is provided by money. It doesn't work, unless you think a few having plenty while the many have not enough is a successful model. Greed is what ruins capitalism as a model.

So the motivation needs to be something else. How about if everyone is granted their basic needs, enough on top for personal interests, but their main reward is recognition? Humans can be so manipulated by the institution of a culture. The Germans proved it worked in WW2 (no money, nothing much to buy with it anyway, but baubles up the ying-yang).

Why does nothing change, even when solutions are painfully obvious and screaming in ones face? Because a handful of sub-human filth at the top benefit from a wholly corrupt and iniquitous system and keep it as it is. No other reason!

Human existance is a system, no different from any other that can be managed, organized, fine-tuned and run to the benefit of the majority instead of for the few. But it requires that our best run it, instead of our worst (as is the case currently and since time immemorial).

So long as we are led by sub-human scum we will continue to live in hell, and trying to pretend it's the fault of some un-controllable system is a fallacy. "Rubbish in, rubbish out".
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"There's the horizon! Ride hard, ride fast and cut down all who stand in your way!"

[Fortuna]

[Kwaks]

Itchy has nailed it here.

1Bn profit after investment is a drop in the ocean. Without the continued investment and research & development the North Sea would have been closed for business already, as it is we have about 30 years left of sustainability.

One of the major factors is oil & gas are sold by the barrel which is priced in dollars. Weak dollar means low profit margins to companies producing the stuff. In the same way we have a crisis in steel supplies, China is buying more and more steel, gas & oil from the rest of the world. This means demand has increased at the same time as the west enters recession.

One of the factors which annoy me most is British business must compete against Chinese & US whilst staying within stricter guidlines for pollution control (ie US refusing to sign Kyoto sgreement). Thus refining costs in UK are substancially higher than China, whilst the standard of gas required must also be higher. ( Something tells me China would have no qualms using sour gas where we must either sweeten it or flare it off).
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