Political Thread

[westlondoncarparts]

Scottish Power is a utility company that generates energy, that distributes energy, and that sells energy. Although the name is Scottish, it operates substantively in England and Wales. It also operates in the USA. In common with a lot of the previously publicly owned utility companies, it is now under overseas ownership and is a subsidiary company within the Spanish Iberdrola Group.

With regard to the £2 billion, is that the size of the total investment rather than any grants received?

The Government seems have to given a minimum price guarantee to ensure that the investment is commercially viable. Presumably, this means that if the market price for the energy generated is less than the guaranteed level, the British taxpayer will stump up the shortfall? And presumably, assuming that most of the shareholders are overseas shareholders rather than British shareholders, this means that any shortfall will be paid to people and organizations external to the UK. I am sure that they will appreciate the largesse of the British taxpayer.

According to Wikipedia, the largest shareholder in Iberdrola in 2013 was the Qatar Investment Holding Group with other major shareholders being the Spanish Banks Kutzabank and Bankia. If this is correct, to play Devil’s Advocate, it can be argued that the flow of cash in the event of the UK Government’s price guarantee being called upon would be as follows:

Scotland subsidises England with what are effectively welfare payments to England as represented by taxation on Scottish offshore oil and gas operations.

The Scottish welfare payments received by England are then squandered by external transfers to these organisations such as QIHG and the Spanish Banks.

What a far cry from the days when the utility companies were owned by The People for The People as essential public services and what a thank you to Scotland for the blessing of all the oil and gas offshore.

Still, maybe a better use of the Scottish money than squandering it to fund the illegal invasion of Iraq and funding opposition groups in Syria that have now morphed into the new Caliphate there.

[HobbyHabitat]

Hi carpets, why is it that whenever scotland is mentioned you seem to take it as an attack on scots. we are eternally grateful for you paying so much into the economy, and long may it continue, I really don't know how we would survive without all that help. I don't know how many wind turbines there off the scottish coast, but when you have a day off, take a trip across London and try and find a part of the essex coast that does not have a view out to sea of wind turbines. Essex is now full, so they have moved up to the coast to the next county, Suffolk, and already have plans for the Norfolk coast.the upside for this area is that a lot of the engineering is done in this area, the turbine bases being shipped out through Harwich harbour. the down side is that the eu. will not let a british company service them (or so we are told in the local press). my original point was that we are being used by all and sundry for the use of wind energy, and I would not consider Essex and Suffolk coasts as particularly windy. I am sure the west coast of Scotland would be a much more profitable place to plant them, I,m sure England would be very grateful. btw, I see they can now make fuel from the mash of the scotch production. again, the upside is less need for oil, and more revenue for England, luverly jubleee.

[PetBazaar]

Hi carpets, why is it that whenever scotland is mentioned you seem to take it as an attack on scots. we are eternally grateful for you paying so much into the economy, and long may it continue, I really don't know how we would survive without all that help. I don't know how many wind turbines there off the scottish coast, but when you have a day off, take a trip across London and try and find a part of the essex coast that does not have a view out to sea of wind turbines. Essex is now full, so they have moved up to the coast to the next county, Suffolk, and already have plans for the Norfolk coast.the upside for this area is that a lot of the engineering is done in this area, the turbine bases being shipped out through Harwich harbour. the down side is that the eu. will not let a british company service them (or so we are told in the local press). my original point was that we are being used by all and sundry for the use of wind energy, and I would not consider Essex and Suffolk coasts as particularly windy. I am sure the west coast of Scotland would be a much more profitable place to plant them, I,m sure England would be very grateful. btw, I see they can now make fuel from the mash of the scotch production. again, the upside is less need for oil, and more revenue for England, luverly jubleee.

In not sure that Essex is being "used" by anyone. The basics on this one are pretty straight forward. The sea is shallow, the power generated is near the large population centres and the infrastructure is there to support them.

None of these are, in the main, true of the Scottish West Coast.

It's just the price you have to pay for being in the most densely populated part of the UK.

And since you ask. 187MW installed off the Scottish east coast and a further 4GW granted consent.

[tonyreddevil]

Former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has been challenged on his role in introducing university tuition fees in England by a school student.
Mr Brown was making a speech in Glasgow in which he called for a united effort to fight for social justice.

During questions afterwards, he was asked: "You were the chancellor of the exchequer that introduced tuition fees, so how can you speak of empowering future generations when you introduced legislation which has encumbered future generations?".

[westlondoncarparts]

Gordon Brown caused the Higher Education funding problem when, with the best of motives, he expanded the number of places available for students. The problem was that the places were expanded so significantly beyond the ability of taxpayers to support the sector that getting students to pay tuition fees was the way to balance the accounts.

On another topic .......

This report is quite disturbing and to my mind is a reflection of the degeneration of our society that I have seen taking place in the UK over several decades now. People no longer have any value in our society at the level of basic humanity.

The first that many people know about their welfare subsistence payments being suspended is when they find there is no money in their bank accounts.

Fortunately, when they are completely destitute and starving, they can go to food banks which has been one of the Government’s growth success stories over the last few years.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...d-un-christian

http://www.jointpublicissues.org.uk/...eport-0315.pdf

Well done the various Church leaders who have been speaking up in recent weeks for the people at the bottom of the pile in our society.
.

[tonyreddevil]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31722779

Getting it down to 50,000 net migration.
This is going to massively out of reach i think!

[astral276]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31722779

Getting it down to 50,000 net migration.
This is going to massively out of reach i think!

Nothing can be done without control of our own borders.

[crafters_corner_2]

Well done the various Church leaders who have been speaking up in recent weeks for the people at the bottom of the pile in our society.
.[/QUOTE]

Perhaps the church could contribute some of its vast wealth to the people at the bottom pile in our society.

[astral276]

Perhaps the church could contribute some of its vast wealth to the people at the bottom pile in our society.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23467750

The church, of all faiths, is as self serving as politicians.

[PetBazaar]

BREAKING NEWS...

Data from NASA's Mars Rover suggests the SNP will capture the Red Planet at the general election.