The problem UK households, public services and businesses face is a shortage of money. The government can create the money needed to get us through this winter. If it does, we survive it. If it doesn’t we won’t. That’s the one decision that will make or break Truss, and us all.
What we face is a shortage of physical resources. Mostly energy but still. The inflation we’ve got shows us that we’ve already got quite enough money floating around.
After all, if money is going down in value, day by day, how can that be the thing that’s in short supply?
With 5 loaves, two fishes, and million pound notes, he is come, he is come!
Can we print to buy Russian supply rerouted through many middlemen to avoid sanctions?
I’ve developed a new theory: MET or Modern Energy Theory, in which energy producers can just add more Gas and Oil to their existing stocks by simply using the keyboards on their computers. Problem solved. ( A ‘K’ would do nicely thank-you…)
It Spud: StupId!
Like I’ve said before, he really does think money is a tangible object.
Strictly speaking he’s right – might involve wheelbarrows and an inflation rate around that of Turkey but it might get us ‘over the line’ – of course in the medium term we’d be even more screwed but he is not fussed about this ‘minor detail’
Superb from Remy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC_CmVbyphw
Jonathan
Isn’t it more like, producers can create artificial oil and gas scarcity to drive up prices by literally turning off pipelines?
What we face is a shortage of physical resources.
Not quite.
What we face is our glorious politicos refusing to allow us to deal with people who have plenty of such things. There isn’t a shortage. There’s an artificial barrier to trade.
Remove the barrier, shortage disappears.
Or alternatively, remove the other barrier – the ban on fracking. Shortage also disappears – but with longer lead times.
Addendum
Yes, there’s a shortage in effect. But it isn’t the root cause. It’s a symptom of what would be hilariously bad governance, if it wasn’t so bloody serious.
Or remove both of the barriers. So even if the sanctions nonsense starts up again, the UK still has oodles of energy.
You could even copy the Germans and reopen your coal burners. There’s certainly no shortage of coal throughout the world.
“You could even copy the Germans and reopen your coal burners. ”
One assumes they have been bulldozed and the sites covered in houses or something, as a metaphor for life in 21st century Britain..
Edit: I was joking above but reality beats satire as ever:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-62051295
I watched last year as they demolished Rugeley power station.
It had a generating capacity of 1000MW, enough to power 1/2 million homes.
Now of course, it’s going to become a housing estate, powered of course by unicorn farts and wishful thinking.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/lifestyle/home-and-garden/more-homes-could-be-built-on-rugeley-power-station-site/ar-AA11ohjp
Rugeley used to be a coal mining town and old pits are scattered around the area. When they shut them all down, the area became an unemployment black spot, with the many pubs and working men’s clubs the beneficiaries of the men’s redundancy payments.
Now the biggest employer in the area is Amazon’s huge fulfillment center.
It would be hard to distinguish a deliberate plan to destroy our energy independence and quality of life from mere accidental incompetence from our Politicians. They are clearly making it impossible to go back to how things were. But there you go.
Werrrllll….. if Lord Spudcup printed enough money to give me to pay off my mortgage, I’d be nett better off regardless of what my wages were actually worth.
What old people suffer from is a surplus of age. If everyone just went around saying they were 39, all geriatric diseases could be cured overnight.
“Lord Spudcup”
Heh! Lincolnshire will be turned over entirely to the production of cabbages…