Things can only get better

[Paddy]

Average energy cost around £5000, you need to earn double that before-tax to pay for that.

UK's big mistake was to drop nuclear power.

[jamesbrown]

Is that why we still have Tory rule, that becomes more corrupt by the day?

We still have Tory rule because people weren't stupid enough to vote for Corbyn or Miliband. There's a decent chance that the public will vote for Starmer because, on the whole, UK voters, but more specifically English voters, are small c conservative, not raging lefties or righties.

[jamesbrown]

Good point, well made. NASA are not private sector. Private sector has got involved now that they know how to make a profit.
Boeing and Airbus? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38131611

NASA is not commercialising space flight, but they certainly make ample use of commercial infrastructure, such as SpaceX. How do you think US astronauts get to the ISS? Of course gov't can have a role in nudging businesses in a particular direction, even supporting businesses under certain circumstances (look at the pandemic FFS), but that is a million miles away from nationalisation of private enterprise and it actually working. The idea that gov't takes an inherently longer term view than business is simply wrong; businesses can take a very long term view if there is the incentive to do so.

[mattster]

Average energy cost around £5000, you need to earn double that before-tax to pay for that.

UK's big mistake was to drop nuclear power.

It's going to be £6-8000 after the next rise, likely much more. Many people simply won't be able to pay it, many energy intensive businesses are going to become non-viable.

This government needs to pull its thumb out of its backside and actually start doing something to protect the future of this country. I agree 100%, we should have been building nuclear like crazy, starting 15 years ago. US rates for electricity average about 8p kwh, from April we'll be paying 28p and businesses probably more (no cap). Beyond the enforced £200 loan, which we'll probably have to pay back when bills are even higher, I haven't heard anything resembling a plan from this government at all.

[Paddy]

It's going to be £6-8000 after the next rise, likely much more. Many people simply won't be able to pay it, many energy intensive businesses are going to become non-viable.

This government needs to pull its thumb out of its backside and actually start doing something to protect the future of this country. I agree 100%, we should have been building nuclear like crazy, starting 15 years ago. US rates for electricity average about 8p kwh, from April we'll be paying 28p and businesses probably more (no cap). Beyond the enforced £200 loan, which we'll probably have to pay back when bills are even higher, I haven't heard anything resembling a plan from this government at all.

I went on a tour of the first low-energy reactor in Dorset during 1961. As a kid I was expecting the UK to be all nuclear within 20 years. What a f*****g waste of technical skills because of clueless politicians.