Centrica confirms price increases for BG customers

Cardew

Poppycat wrote:

I no I am with SP, but it is still disgusting. Imagine when you on a low income, and then now face paying inflation busting increases on top of that council tax that is out of control, and we get what, peanuts? I am sorry but something is wrong and it is immoral and outrageous increases, it makes me bloody sick.

Poppycat,

There is a recurring theme in your threads that you are poor, and the poor need help or their living standards will suffer.

Reading your posts in various threads you seem to have 3 freeview boxes which presumably means 3 TVs(one of them an LCD TV) DVD recorder, all the latest computer equipment, and you can afford the internet and run a car.

So I wonder how you define poor and where do you think the Government gets its money from to help the poor.

Cardew

Poppycat wrote:

I sorry I didn't think I had to justify myself to you. Next time I spend anything I ask your permission shall I? I have my reasons but I don't want to tell you as its begger all to do with you.

In answer to your question as I wont go into my personnel details as its none of your business. But lets say people in receipt of a fixed income don't get huge increases nor is there a way to do a few extra hours a week to balance the books. They get small increases, but every year fuel and council tax are stifling those incomes eventually something gives.

I am not just angry for myself as many other people are suffering hardship, I just feel enough is enough, under Labour the rich have far prospered than the poor have, but that's another story.

Where else do you think the government get there money from, taxes. Taxes incidental were put on fuel if you remember years ago due to the scrapping of polll tax. My council tax has gone up like most have over 100% in 10 years, incomes have not kept pace with that, something has to give.

I haven’t asked you to justify yourself, merely define what you consider impoverished.

You constantly claim to be poor and yet the state benefits you claim seem to enable you to live pretty well.

It would not be so annoying if your posts were not so angry and negative – just read them. Whether you like it or not, you live in a capitalist society that provides the wealth to enable you to live as you do.

superscotsman

lisyloo wrote:

I think some of you are very wrong here.
Wholesale gas prices have gone up massively over the past few years.
Companies like British gas have actually protected customers from price rises.

I don't work for the gas industry and I don't have a vested interest, I just don't like to see wrong information being put about.

These companies are not doing this to make masses of money.
They are doing it simply because the cost of the raw material has gone up.
They are not passing on the cost fully.

We cannot continue to use energy wasterfully and ruin our planet and think that the natural resources are infinite, because they are not.

Imagine what it's going to be like when billions of people in India and China want the same lifestyle that we have.
It is unfortunately inevitable that energy prices are going to rocket unless we get our act together with other sources.

I agree with most of the above, but i am afraid things are worse, and a lot of you have not woken up to just how bad things are going to get. I am old enough to remember the last huge hike in energy prices. It plunged a relatively healthy British economy into chaos. Higher fuel bills mean higher prices means higher wage claims means high inflation. The only defence is strong government: there is only one man in the House of Commons who is strong enough to see Weimar Republic inflation off: Tony Blair. Only he has the strength to resist the siren calls to print more money. Anybody else, and you are going to have to use scientific notation to write out your zeros.

There are more gas price rises to come. The Russians have been flexing their muscles with The Ukraine and Georgia. Russia can now ask whatever they like for their gas, and they will get their price, because if they don't they will just turn the taps off. The Major government, in a magnificent display of farsightedness, closed down the pits and shifted the power stations over to gas. As Heinlein said: Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

And it is going to get worse, because I have more bad news for you. And the governments have got no excuse. I have known this for about 12 years, so there are scientists who have known it for considerably longer. You may know that about half of Rip-Off Britain's winter heat energy is provided by the Gulf Stream Drift. By latitude this country should have a Russa/Sweden/Canada winter. Well, the currents that drive the Gulf Stream Drift have been changing, and the Gulf Stream is to dissipate, and that will mean that in 6 or 7 years you are going to freeeeze big time.

As another Scotsman once said: "We're doomed. DOOMED, I tell ye!"

Cardew

Poppycat wrote:

You dont no anything about me and as I said I dont feel I have to jusify myself to you or anyone else. How do you know how I live?

I refrain from replying to your posts and yes I am angry but with other things too which I wont go into.

You no nothing about me, so please keep your assumptions to yourself

Nothing I have said is an assumption!

michaels

Hnag on though - you are simultaneously complaining that we are not taxed enough (the poor should be given more) and that we are taxed too much (with Council tax rises something has got to give) - which is it?

If energy prices go up then alternatives (like double glazing, house insulation, more clothes) become relatively cheaper - and maybe peopel start bothering to turn off electrical appliances rather than just use standby?

George W Bush, scrouge of the enviromentalists has probably acheived much more to curtail energy consumption than many other policies through ihs misguided policy in the gulf pushing up prices - ironic huh?

Finally, all those of you kicking shareholders - most shares are held by pension funds - probably yours and mine - so if share holders do worse then we all got to pay more into our pensions - volunteers?

superscotsman

No need to justify yourself, Poppycat. Cowdew has also trawled through my past postings looking for things he could use against me. You are right: your lifestyle is none of his business. If you had nothing better to do, you could go through his past postings and find the false figures he quotes - like the ones he quoted to me on another thread. They are utter pie in the sky. If you click on Cowdew's name on his last profile, then click on "view public profile", then you will see a bit that says "add Cowdew to your ignore list." Click on that and it's out of sight out of mind. I shall take my own advice and put him on ignore myself.

Poppycat

My concerns are as always and not just for myself as I do actually help people who are worse off than me but that's another story, is that this is going to hit those more vulnerable in society

My main concern is the inflation busting increases which is having a disproportionate effect on those on low incomes, whether you work or not.

We cant keep having these increases whether its in council tax or fuel costs without it having an effect on standard of livings and ultimately it will increase inflation as people will demand higher wages to justify these huge increases.

Portlandbill

What happened to "be nice to other posters folks" ?

Out of interest PoppyCat are you a British Gas Customer,and will you be affected by these increases?

MajorR

How interesting a thread about poverty,fatcats etc etc

I dont think that because we are more well off than most in this world that we shouldn't aspire to something better.
Q/What does it mean to be poor or in poverty?
A/Not having the necessity for life in your environment

Not knowing where the next meal is coming from or having to walk miles to get water, is living in abject poverty an extreme and a realitly for many living in poor countries.
For us in Britain ( a 1st world country) poverty could be earning less than 20k a year, or having 80% of your income spent on rent/council tax and now gas/elec/water bills, after all what is the point in working if there is nothing left to enjoy? Isnt that what peasants used to do centuries ago, have we come no futher even with all our technologies.

Theres a divide growing in this country the have's and the have not's
Council tax has gone up over 100% in some part of the country
Houses prices are rocketed past anything a 1st buyer can afford
Price of petrol has gone up from 58per Litre to 90 since labour came in
and now the utilitly compaines want their slice of the pie.

Im wondering how much more people will take, but we continue to go to work everyday and just accept anything that is thrown at us.

michaels

I work. I pay tax. I can't afford a flat screen tv - when my last tv broke I bought one for 40 quid second hand. I don't expect benefits or other payments, if I wanted to be able to spend more I would have to look for a better paying job or a second job. I don't expect to benefit from others working via benefits or whatever.

My electricity supplier recently went broke as they did not charge enough for the energy they were selling me - how is this unreasonable behaviour?

The only energy companies that make money are those that supply the fuel in the first place - and they don't set the prices, the markert does, if they were to reduce prices everyone would want to buy from them and they would obviously not be able to supply enough. Where they make profit from the high prices it goes as tax or improves the share price - which boosts pensions rather than 'rich people'.

I grew up without a tv in my bedroom, new designer label clothes each season and put on more clothes/blankets when it was cold. Today most children do not have to suffer such 'hardships' even when on benefits and yet there are still complaints and calls for further 'redistribution'.

Finally let me remake one point - rising energy costs are the best possible news for the environment and will acheive much more than Kyoto ever would.