**Claire**

I didn't realise that this happened in the UK till I read it a couple of weeks ago.....


"Foreign power firms are buying cheap North Sea gas from Britain in the summer and putting it into vast storage facilities on the Continent.
They then refuse to pipe it back to the UK when it is needed in the winter, effectively rationing supplies and pushing up prices.
The UK is vulnerable to these strong-arm tactics because we have such tiny gas holding facilities that we cannot store cheap North Sea gas in the summer for use in the winter. There is enough storage to supply the country with gas for only 13 days, compared with 99 days in Germany and 122 in France."

I know it's only part of the problem but why don't we just build bigger gas storeage so that we aren't being held to ransom for Gas supply in the winter? Wouldn't that make more sense and wouldn't it have some impact on Gas prices??

alistairolsen

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Inflation has NOTHING directly to do with mortgage rates, thats about the cost of borrowing, which is only loosely tied to inflation (and in fact not normally even included in the figures I see published).

you made the assumption interest rates wouldnt go up, and you borrowed further money, and some of your available funds you spent on holidays and cars etc, rather than on minimising your debt liabilities.
Its not "wrong" as such, its up to you how you live, but it did increase the chance of you ending up in the situation you are in.


Yes I own, but in my case I do not own the home I live in at the moment, as I actually rent where I live with some mates, as im not interested in being around long term, but I own rental property down in somerset.

My rental mortgage liability currently is more than my rental income, so I end up about 150 quid a month out of pocket, this is still well within the parameters I worked out I could afford when deciding how much mortgage to have, I could easily have extended the mortaging a fe years ago and gone on some flashy holidays or bought an expensive car or similar, but I decided that would be a bad decision is if the base rate changed, it would leave me falling short of what I could comfortably afford to be spending out.
I also further insured myself against large rises by remortgaging at .1% higher rate a couple of years ago when I changed jobs and dropped my wages and changed to not working fridays anymore, this was a drop of about 25K a year so I felt that it was worth paying a little extra to keep with the deal I had so that if things drastically changed in the mortgage market like I suspected they might, I wouldnt have to remortgage and end up worse off, its ONLY the base rate that can effect me because of the situation I have put myself in, YOU could have done the same!

Chip

iTrader: (3)

The reason we dont do that, is it would take a large investment over a period of time.

If you are in power for 4 years, you dont spend a load of money out on something that costs money and wont benefit people till after your term has run out, as doing so would lose you votes from the braindead morons who make up most of the electorate.

dumped

SSE have an absolutely enormous storage facility in Aldbrough. They also plan to hold us to ransom on our own shores with the same tactics.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Holidays? Cars?? AFPMSL.

Beccy drives a Renault Clio. I have an RST that costs fuck all at the moment. We have, at best, one holiday a year, sometimes not even that and even when we do, it's hardly a Caribbean Cruise. This year we went to Corfu for a week on a Self-catering basis. Chip, come on, even you can't say thats excessive surely?

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Then you've got Energy firms talking about using renewable sources like Wind Farms for supplying us energy and that this will cost us all more in the short term as we, the end user, must carry the cost of the equipment (WTF??), but that this will result in cheaper and more environmentally friendly energy. I reckon even once these wind-farms are the source of most of our energy, we will never see the benefit of our investment.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

If you are potentially risking losing your home if interest rates go up again, then your project RST and even a cheap foreign holiday seem like a bad place for the money to go.

If you are risking your home, then ANY luxuries are excessive IMHO

What Porkie spends on cars and holidays a year, would have me living on the street if I tried the same, as I dont have as much money as him.
But at the same time I spend FAR more on both cars and holidays than you do, but it doesnt matter when I do it cause I can afford to do so.

Thats the key thing, whats excessive for one person isnt for another.

alistairolsen

the problem is we dont really have democracy, what we do is:

a minority bother to turn out and vote
one votes for the person one feels represents their interests best for most of the time
national government is formed by a majority of these MPs

so the leader you end up with in parliament might be no reflection of the person for whom you voted locally, at best the person you voted in locally will reflect your interests most of the time

ideal democracy would be to have a nationalvote on every single decision ever made, but this is impractical and would give idiots more propensity to fuck things up.

Porkie

iTrader: (1)

I see what your saying Christian. Sounds like you were pretty sensible about it and I do feel kinda sorry for you both as you are honest and nice people.

It is a wounder. But you do have options mate. Some people would love to be as fortunate as yourself. That was my only point.

Hope things change.

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Alistair, indeed, this is what I meant by a "modern democracy"

If we lived in small pockets of people who voted someone in from our 200 strong community, it would work, with 60 million people though, and ALL our information coming from the media and no direct contact, we have NO say really in what actually happens, just by choosing either a blue tie or a red tie, our votes count for fuck all in reality!

alistairolsen

wind farms are bollocks and campaigners should be shot in the head, they simply will not work.

pumped storage is to remove fluctuations only, it doesnt make net energy.

that leaves tidal, wave, solar and nuclear

problem stems as chip has said above from the UK governments reluctance to spend money on things like energy infrastructure!

our country is no more democratic than the USSR was communist sadly, human nature (greed) ruins every good idea

Paul Eggleton

You'd be glad they're there if oil got to $200 assuming we actually build enough in the first place....

I know we are looking at new gas storeage in this country but the government always leaves it 'up to the market' to invest. It's not prepared to put it's hand it's it's pocket.

dumped

I believe the civils that make the most long term decisions that are still leading to low efficiencies no matter which government is "in power" yet it is the government which is held accountable. Nice blame transfer for poor service.

arch

Blimey, seems we have some economists amongst us

I actually see where Christian is coming from, and I to tend to agree with the fact that you could not forsee the actual increases in everything. Yes, I budgeted for the 'normal' yearly increases and can still afford day to day living as it it, but make cut backs as and when I can (only wish the wife would bloody play the game though)

As for BP making profits, well fair play to em, if I had shares I would be well chuffed.

As to name calling, come one fella's, it's not the school yard is it. Everyone can have an opinion, even if you think it's misinformed.

I reckon that most civilised countries are feeling the pinch, it's the nature of the beast.

Would have to say though, Brown is an idiot and got our country into a terrible state due to his habit of borrowing far too much. I feel sorry for the Cons when they come to power, they will have to sort out the shocking mess left behind and sort it quickly.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

I think alternative energy sources are a great idea, but I'm wondering if it will ever be us that actually benefits. Can you honestly see a day where energy companies sit back and say 'well that worked, now lets gives our customers the great news about the 30% reduction in prices that we can now give them'. No, I can't.

**Claire**

Silly me, I thought GB was putting measures in place for the future of the UK too. Guess I'll start farting in a money box to try and save on my gas bills

Chip

iTrader: (3)

My limited understanding is that the civils come up with a selection of policies, some of which would make good longterm prospects, the politicians then stamp on the longterm stuff that might make them look bad, and implement the other half.

If this country was a car, the civils would suggest a full rebuild and respray after treating all the rust by cutting out panels and welding new in, over a period of 10 years.
The politicians would then say that wasnt an option and go back asking for a "quick win" at which point the civils would table the option of spoldging some P38 into the rusty bits and repsraying, looks good as new for all of 10 minutes.

its a SHITE system!

dumped

I'm sorry but windfarms do seem a crap idea big time for supply. Now sun farms in africa producing peak output at the right time of day and year hmmmmm

Chip

iTrader: (3)

God you TOTALLY miss how things work ina free market economy dont you?

If we can get to a stage where we have a surplus of available energy, we will then have companies competing to sell us THEIR energy, which means price wars and the consumer winning.

However, the companies involved are OBVIOUSLY not going to want to work towards that, only the government can, and the government wont because it would cost money, and therefore they wont get elected again.

So the government just leave the companies in question to it, and those companies, like ALL good companies who are trying to maximise shareholder return, will go for the most profitable option not the least profitable one!

Thats how things work, and if all your plans for the future arent based on that, you are going to keep getting bitten!

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

like many other people it appears you bought your house on a low start fixed mortgage,did you think you could borrow this money at this rate for the full mortgage term.IMO all this has been caused by the banks lending to cheap and allowing people to swap to another fixed rate low start when infact at the end of the fixed rate term it should have gone up to the standard rate of interest, as it used to be 10 years + ago.
Stop moaning that you are now paying the standard rate not the discounted rate

Paul Eggleton

It's definitely not going to work like that. It will be more a case of 'well your gas/elec bills would have been £20k per year if we hadn't done anything so be happy it's only £10k per year'

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Oh look, a months money for the mortgage, 750 quid, shall we put that in the bank for a rainy day?

Nah, bollocks to it, we'll buy a trendy glass panel for the bath

https://passionford.com/forum/general-car-related-discussion/212525-glass-experts-bathroom-glass-question.html

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

you piss taking tw@
but you are quite correct

Chip

iTrader: (3)

All C&B wants (according to this thread) is the basic simple needs that we all have in life, like a 750 bath panel.

Last one I bought for one of my properties, was 20 quid iirc, and thats a more expensive house than his one too

Paul Eggleton

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

my bath panel came free with my bath and has made no difference to the value of my property I do however wish I had sold the place last year it is now worth 75k less ,do you think a glass bath panel would get my 75k back roflol

Porkie

iTrader: (1)

and

Chip... remind me NEVER to argue with you!

Turbosystems

iTrader: (5)

this current credit crunch does not affect every body for example my brother cleans windows and has just traded in his o8 gillardo for a 220k Murcealago
clearly he cleans a massive amount of windows,so the moral to the credit crunch is get of your arse and do more work

Paul Eggleton

Amen Mr Teabag

Turbo-Beal

I think we should all clean windows then and we will all be alright LOL

badnews

i still say buy the dog food christian and get a woolie jumper chap winters coming it seems like it will be the winter of discontent. like porkie has said sort it out for fooks sake. i did not like the uk so fooked off and to be honest it's the best move i ever did. i did not moan i just buckled down did the hard yards and moved to oz for a better life. things are better here but if people live on credit and buy things they can't afford on the never never they have only themselves to blame. i have never had a car loan or any loan if i wanted it i saved for it.

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Chip, you're being a real cunt. Fuck you.

We bought some nice things for our fucking home at a time when we could afford to do so. The net cost of my bathroom is far less than it would have cost if I had paid someone to do the fucking work to fit a £500 B&Q suite, even though I've done stuff I'm not really supposed to do, like electrical work and plumbing. You are one sad cunt if you want to trawl my post history to make me out to be unreasonable, when all I set out to do here was find out how people are managing in the real world.

As for the mortgage subject, we simply visited a mortgage broker who advised us which mortgage would be best for our needs and coupled with the fact that we are BOTH quite sensible, we took it. It wasn't anything stupid. At the time, there were countless lenders willing to lend at 4.5 ish %. In actual fact, when we first borrowed 4 years ago, we did get our pants pulled down as we only had 5% deposit (mainly because we had worked our bollocks off to clear ALL our debts first). I'm not and never have pretended to understand all aspects of the economy, I am just a normal person trying to get by and here you are trying to make me out to be some kind of over-indulgent person with abnormal expectations.

Ginge !

christian with this fairness, what about the thermostats you was selling on ebay for how much PLUS the 7 quid to post them off,,,,, for a 2.0 DOHC thermostat you can buy from a factors for 3 or 4 quid

was that ALSO you being fair or was that capitalising on your abillity and others ignorance ?

ive noticed people who feel its fair to earn money from there knowlege and hold others to ransom are the first to complain about being ripped off by another !

cabrio zo

If I'm cutting expenditure, one of the first things I would cut is paying someone else to clean my windows!

Z

Chip

iTrader: (3)

Does he clean glass bath panels too?

I hear that the really rich and famous celebs now have bath panels costing as much as 750 quid, obviously he wont find many of those to clean though, as its very rare someone is SO financially secure they can throw away that sort of money on such a frivalous item, I know I certainly couldnt afford to do so!

Luca

iTrader: (2)

Lol at Chip for trawling back

But it is a nice bath panel

badnews

i still say buy the dog food christian and get a woolie jumper chap winters coming it seems like it will be the winter of discontent. like porkie has said sort it out for fooks sake. i did not like the uk so fooked off and to be honest it's the best move i ever did. i did not moan i just buckled down did the hard yards and moved to oz for a better life. things are better here but if people live on credit and buy things they can't afford on the never never they have only themselves to blame. i have never had a car loan or any loan if i wanted it i saved for it. this post has turned to shite with folk moaning about the situation they have got themselves into do this a few more times and think what you spend on

Ginge !

no i think the point is rather than wait for the cash to come in, if your sort of it then look for ways to make more cash

and theres NO FUCKING WAY HE GOT A LAMBO CLEANING FUCKING WINDOWS, he OBV has employees cleaning them for him

my old boss talks about how hes managed to build up a business AND be a NHS doctor so anythings possible,,,, he has a director he employed to run hes buisiness and HES made it the success,,,,, the doctor dont even know what the latest prducts are hes selling,,, but hes got a turnover proffit of 17million a year,,, and claims HE made it

Christian and Beccy

iTrader: (14)

Now you're scraping the barrel. How has this thread turned into such a witch hunt?

The thermostats I was selling were costing me more than £3-4, but I'm not making excuses for that, it was years ago and really not relevant to whats being talked about here.

Are you really saying that my input into the Ford world hasn't been more helpful than profit-making in the time that I have been involved? If so, I regret ever helping you out or any of the other people that I have gone out of my way to fully inform to the best of my ability.