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Ed Davey And The Big 6

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tballrossi | 12:49 Fri 18th Oct 2013 | News
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yesterday ed davey on talking about british gas price rises said it was labours fault for creating the big 6 energy companies,can anyone explain how this is i always thought it was maggie who created the free energy market promising it would create competition and keep prices down.
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His reasoning, if it merits that word, is that there were 14 companies but these became 6 under Labour. That, I think, was the result of mergers or takeovers rather than companies dying. The Tories say that that killed competition and we should make everything open and attractive so that new companies come in, thus creating the cut-throat competition which...
13:26 Fri 18th Oct 2013
His reasoning, if it merits that word, is that there were 14 companies but these became 6 under Labour. That, I think, was the result of mergers or takeovers rather than companies dying. The Tories say that that killed competition and we should make everything open and attractive so that new companies come in, thus creating the cut-throat competition which means cheaper prices for all of us. I leave it to others to say whether they can see a flaw in this thinking!
Didn't he also say something to the affect that since 2010, and therefore by implcation implicitly because of actions of the Coalition, a whole raft of new energy companies had been formed? But no details were given, so I am unsure as to which companies he was referring, whether there has been an explosion in the numbers of independent utility companies, or if that was down to some legislative change by the Coalition
Fred, not that I want to be pedantic, but isn't Mr Davey a Liberal?

So your dig at the Tories is not exactly correct is it? It is the coalition.

It wont create enough competition and until the wholesale business is separated out totally by all companies so we can see exactly how they are getting the figures nothing will change.

One think is for sure though. Due to lack of investment in energy generation in this country over the last 15 years wholesale prices (from foreign companies using Nuclear) will rise and there is s*d all we can do.
I was giving the reasoning of a Tory MP spokesman, ymf. He was speaking on Newsnight a while ago. But, yes, it must be the coalition's argument and not just that of the Tories. Nice to know that the Lib Dems have some input, but I can't say that the coalition is any more than the Tory Party, so far as I've noticed, now that the original excitement has died down.

Is there a flaw? Gosh, I am surprised !
tballrossi...you are right on the button ! The gas and electricity supply companies were privatised under the Tory government in the 1980's. They promised that in return for stealing these companies from the tax and rate payers, we would all benefit in the future by competition forcing prices down.

Of course, all it has done is to force prices up and made a lot of people in the City and all the foreign-owned companies rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Some of us, not me, were bribed by a couple of hundred pounds profit in the initial privatisation. We were conned and we never seem to learn, as it is happening all over again, with our postal system.
the natural outcome of competition is monopoly, as the losers go to the wall. It's all very well saying you're opening the way to more companies, but unfortunately I don't seem to have the start-up capital to let me compete with Eon.
We can only blame Thatcher, for the present state of the UK, she groomed this lot we have in power now.
It makes me laugh when I see/hear the word competition applied to these companies.

competition is buying a car from say Ford or maybe Fiat, you actually have a choice in the product how it peforms, running costs etc etc.

as far as i'm aware the gas is the same whoever supplies it, same as the leccy, so there is no competition in terms of the product.
i cant get gas that is better in any way from one company than any another

the only competition is the metering of said product...that is not my idea of competition, this whole idea of competition is another massive con foisted on the public

"were bribed by a couple of hundred pounds profit in the initial privatisation"

and joe public were all rushing to buy a few quids worth of shares thinking that turned them into stockbrockers and suddenly they were all experts on the stock market

In reality the big boys were fuming that joe public were being encouraged to buy shares because it meant less for them and a lot more work after the dust settled to start buying them off joe public so they had larger holding to make money.

more importantly they hated the fact that the public were getting in on their act and breaking into their private club......didnt i mention my dad was a broker before he retired, i remember he used to fume over it..sometimes he used to sit reading the papers on at breakfast whilst quietly mumbling to himself "everyones a phuuking a stockbroker now" used to make me and my mum and brother crack up

same with the mail the big boys dont want gazillions of shares in the hands of the little people, thats no good to them
Who are the big boys then?

I thin you find many actually act on behalf of pension funds and so still represent Joe Public !
"Who are the big boys then? "

the city institutions et al, the big dealers and as you say pension funds will be in the list

If you looked at the list of stockholders for any particular issue of this size you will see a lot of names always cropping up

a lot of the big brokers are already complaining about the allocation limits and how much commission theyve lost

they really dont want the little man involved, theyd rather big deals and big commissions not lots of minnows taking up their time and money

i see RM hit 500 today...some huge money already being made, imagine if youd had the bottle to invest your life savings and sold today ?

a nice little earner terry..... to coin the phrase

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