Westminster Politics

Yeah they're criminals. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves. Think this is like the third time a phone has been wiped or replaced recently by someone in government following an investgation or legal challenege isn't it. That's not just a coincidence.

MIchael Gove a few weeks back - "Transparency drives everything this governement does".

Sure Jan.
 
Drifter said:
Energy bills to rise by at least £139 for millions of households

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58106105
Click to expand...
Domestic energy bills are linked to wholesale prices, the price at which energy businesses have to pay for gas and electricity.
When wholesale energy prices fell last summer following the first lockdown, Ofgem reduced the level of the cap by £84 for last winter.
But in February it increased the cap by £96, blaming rising wholesale costs.
Since then the wholesale cost of energy - which account for 40% of domestic bills - has climbed by more than 50%, which has led to the latest increase.
EDF, one of the UK's biggest energy providers, said the "unprecedented rate" at which wholesale prices were rising meant that customers would "at some point see the impact of this global trend".
Click to expand...

its difficult to see any other practical solution in the short term other than raising bills because if 40% of your cost has gone up by 50% there isnt going to me many people who have the margin to absorb that without passing it on

I think about half of people are still on expired deals or have never switched so hopefully most of that impact can be offset by them doing so but yeah electricity and gas cost more so people have to pay more for it ... given government emissions targets this trend is only going to accelerate over the next few years as they look to move people to heat pumps and ever more Co2 efficient electric production (not necessarily cost efficient)
 
esmufc07 said:
EDF made a profit of nearly $3bn last year
Click to expand...
EDF have ~5m UK residential customers meaning an average of £600 per customer.

Obviously those profits don’t entirely come from residential customers but it demonstrates the financial flexibility these companies have. They could all afford to trim their profit margins and protect their customers from these sorts of rises if the government forced them to.

They’re happy enough to squeeze the extra profit when energy is cheap. It should work both ways.
 
Pexbo said:
EDF have ~5m UK residential customers meaning an average of £600 per customer.

Obviously those profits don’t entirely come from residential customers but it demonstrates the financial flexibility these companies have. They could all afford to trim their profit margins and protect their customers from these sorts of rises if the government forced them to.

They’re happy enough to squeeze the extra profit when energy is cheap. It should work both ways.
Click to expand...
I mean that's not really true

Ebitda was 712 million
Ebit was a loss of 865 million

https://www.edfenergy.com/media-cen...-group-results-2020-highlights-edf-energy-ltd

Ebitda per customer £142

Ebit is a loss of £172 per customer
 
Surely you'd have assumed this could have occurred and setup contingencies? Y'know, covering all bases and being prepared for all outcomes? Yet another glowing example of how shite our Government is at handling any kind of event.
 
RedSky said:
Surely you'd have assumed this could have occurred and setup contingencies? Y'know, covering all bases and being prepared for all outcomes? Yet another glowing example of how shite our Government is at handling any kind of event.
Click to expand...
you have to wonder what our intelligence services were briefing about this... I know the last USA report that was made pubic said Kabul might be surrounded in a month and fall in three months (this seemed to assume there would be a siege / fighting)

If they came to the same conclusion clearly they were wrong
If they just assumed the USA report was correct that's probably even worse than coming to the wrong conclusion
If they actually briefed wht has happened was a possibility / probability then yes the government should have had a better plan in place

It does seem surprising looking at the timeline though that at least a week ago there wasn't at least offer of repatriation flights for UK residents and anybody who worked with the UK forces?...

What's happened recently?

Since President Biden made the announcement in April a bad situation for the Afghan government has turned into a perilous one. Here's what's happened in recent months:

  • May 4, the Taliban launches an offensive across the country focusing on the southern Helmand province.
  • May 11, the Taliban capture Nerkh, just outside Kabul and fighting intensifies across the country.
  • June 7, more than 150 Afghan soldiers are killed in less than 24 hours as the government begins to lose ground.
  • June 22, the fighting spreads to the north, away from the Taliban's traditional strongholds in the south of the country and they seize several districts.
  • July 2, the US pulls out of the Bagram airbase - once the centre of all US operations in the country - without telling their Afghan counterparts. US ground operations in Afghanistan effectively come to an end.
  • August 6, a new rapid offensive by the Taliban begins and they claim their first provincial capital, Zaranj, in the south of the country.
  • August 7, another provincial capital, Sheberghan, in the north falls to the Taliban.
  • August 8, the Taliban seize control of three more provincial capitals in the north, Sar-e-Pul, Taloqan and the large and strategically important city of Kunduz.
  • August 9, Aybak, another provincial capital, in the north is taken by the Taliban.
  • August 10, provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri falls to the Taliban.
  • August 11, the northern provincial capitals of Fayzabad falls to the Taliban in the north while they also seize control of Farah in the west.
  • August 12, Afghanistan's second and third largest cities, Kandahar and Herat, were captured just hours after the takeover of Ghazni. Lashkar Gar city was also taken.
  • August 14 - The Taliban captured Logar province, including its capital Pul-i-Alam. The province is just south of Kabul. It also captured Mazar-e-Sharif - a large, heavily defended city in northern Afghanistan.
  • August 15 - The insurgents entered the presidential palace in the capital of Kabul and said they would soon declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. President Ashraf Ghani also left the country for neighbouring Tajikistan. The insurgents also seized Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province.
Click to expand...

I do wonder how much the withdrawal from Bagram without communication hurt the moral of the Afghan forces and made them realise they were on their own... just seems a strange way to treat supposed allies?
 
sun_tzu said:
you have to wonder what our intelligence services were briefing about this... I know the last USA report that was made pubic said Kabul might be surrounded in a month and fall in three months (this seemed to assume there would be a siege / fighting)

If they came to the same conclusion clearly they were wrong
If they just assumed the USA report was correct that's probably even worse than coming to the wrong conclusion
If they actually briefed wht has happened was a possibility / probability then yes the government should have had a better plan in place

It does seem surprising looking at the timeline though that at least a week ago there wasn't at least offer of repatriation flights for UK residents and anybody who worked with the UK forces?...



I do wonder how much the withdrawal from Bagram without communication hurt the moral of the Afghan forces and made them realise they were on their own... just seems a strange way to treat supposed allies?
Click to expand...

In addition to that, my understanding is that when the US pulled out, they also withdrew all the support services which the Afghans relied upon and had been trained to use.
 
Buster15 said:
In addition to that, my understanding is that when the US pulled out, they also withdrew all the support services which the Afghans relied upon and had been trained to use.
Click to expand...
yes I believe they also provided the logistics support to other Nato allies and the withdrawal of that is what forced a number of nato allies to scale back they realised they couldnt adequately support their own troops safely without that logistics infra
 
Paxi said:
If a civilian did that then they’d be arrested surely?
Click to expand...
I'm positive I said this earlier but every time they say that they forgot the passcode to their phones and then accidentally wiped them I call absolute bullshit on that. They're all on iPhones, which means they'll use the Jamf management service. Most of my day to day work with Jamf involves resetting folk's passcodes or unlocking devices.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I'm positive I said this earlier but every time they say that they forgot the passcode to their phones and then accidentally wiped them I call absolute bullshit on that. They're all on iPhones, which means they'll use the Jamf management service. Most of my day to day work with Jamf involves resetting folk's passcodes or unlocking devices.
Click to expand...
I don’t know what jamf is to be honest with you but I heard criminals use hacked phones that have hidden encrypted os installed.
 
Drainy said:
The Donald is clearly playing the long game. Obviously.

I'm mocking the idea that Trump was a hidden genius, that many conservatives seemed to think.
Click to expand...
Oh, I get you now. I thought you were insinuating that people were trying to find ways to blame Trump for this despite it being on Bidens watch. My bad.
 
sun_tzu said:
yes I believe they also provided the logistics support to other Nato allies and the withdrawal of that is what forced a number of nato allies to scale back they realised they couldnt adequately support their own troops safely without that logistics infra
Click to expand...

Quite correct. Not sure how much notice the other allies were given if any.
What a mess eh.
 
To be fair, if he can't even count how many kids he has what chance does he have of being able to tell what time it is?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.