They just aren’t switched on. Since Ed Miliband announced Labour’s plans for an 18 month energy price freeze should he be forming a government in 2015, the Tories have not been able to properly respond. Shouting “Marxism!” had zero effect, their whinging about wholesale gas prices has been unconvincing – especially when the Big Six […]
Posts under ‘Infrastructure’
The Coop group is in a mess: deal with it
Nov 21st, 2013 by Richard Murphy.I’m angry that the Co-op group is in a mess. As a member I have been let down. As a customer of the bank they’ve failed me. As a believer in the co-op approach to business I am disappointed that flagship co-op has failed so many other successful co-ops by its actions. I am annoyed […]
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Government gets into bed with gas industry
Nov 15th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.There are seemingly no limits to how far this government will crawl into the pockets of the private sector to do them a favour to maximise their profits at taxpayers’ expense. Greenpeace has just discovered via freedom of information (FOI) rules that a major state subsidy scheme for gas-fired power stations in the UK is […]
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Islamic bonds and foreign state investment in UK, but still no UK public investment
Nov 1st, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Osborne is today unveiling a £200m Islamic bond or ‘sukuk’ to try to make the City of London the leading player in the sharia-compliant finance industry, which is estimated to be worth $1 trillion globally.’ He has made clear he wants to make the City the base for Chinese banks and a global hub for […]
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The 2008 crash was no blip, but a complete change in trajectory for the British economy
Oct 31st, 2013 by Jon Lansman.Richard Murphy this morning draws attention to a quite startling graph comes from an academic paper by Prof Richard Jones of Sheffield University on the need to invest in innovation As Richard says, “what the graph shows is something anyone interested in political economy needs to understand: 2008 was not a blip; it was a complete change […]
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Tell Sid… we want our energy back
Oct 25th, 2013 by Grahame Morris.Government Ministers have tried to justify the undervalued sale of the Royal Mail as a return to popular capitalism.It has been nearly thirty years since the Government’s “Tell Sid” campaign helped launch the privatisation of British Gas. We will never know if Sid bought any shares but one thing is for sure, if he is […]
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As Tories privatise the post, Labour must expose where the market has failed
Oct 10th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The imminent privatisation of Royal Mail once again draws attention to the deficiencies and failures of private markets. It is going to cost the country £12bn as the deficit on the Royal Mail pension fund is dumped on taxpayers. The underpricing of the sale will also cost the country at least a further £1bn, the […]
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Why capping energy prices and investment in renewables are badly needed
Sep 30th, 2013 by Michael Burke.The announcement by Ed Miliband that Labour would temporarily cap energy prices is a welcome one. But the reaction to it reveals to deep-seated problems of the British economy and British politics. According to Labour’s own (uncontested) research household energy bills have risen by 29% in 3 years. Therefore the pledge to cap prices rises for […]
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The public wants rail, water, energy re-nationalised, and it needs doing
Sep 19th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The latest figures show that a season ticket, including tube travel, from Woking in Surrey to central London cost £3.268 last year. A similar 22-mile journey in Italy from Velletri to Rome cost just £336. In France the 24-mile journey from Ballancourt to Paris costs £924. The RMT argues that the vastly higher costs of […]
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The politics of Royal Mail privatisation
Sep 13th, 2013 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.It’s looking like they will really do it this time. Where the blessed Margaret feared to tread, and New Labour ignominiously failed, our merry coalition of Liberal Democrats and Conservatives in the process of privatising Royal Mail. Wheeled out to defend a policy that is conspicuously unpopular, Michael Fallon says this is about liberating Royal Mail, of […]
