Comments on: Unison: Nationalise the big six and create a ‘green army’ to help the UK hit net zero https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/unison-nationalise-the-big-six-and-create-a-green-army-to-help-the-uk-hit-net-zero/ Left Foot Forward is the home for UK progressives. We provide evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy. Wed, 19 Jun 2019 01:21:37 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.5 By: Chester Draws https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/unison-nationalise-the-big-six-and-create-a-green-army-to-help-the-uk-hit-net-zero/#comment-969554 Wed, 19 Jun 2019 01:21:37 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=136967#comment-969554 Ah, the Venezuela solution!

Nationalise it. Make it cheap. Thereby make it unprofitable. So maintenance isn’t done and there is no capital for expansion. And the country runs out of energy.

If suppliers are ripping people off, then there is no need to nationalise them. Merely put in a state company to compete at the supposedly correct price, and that will drive the others out of business (for free, so no cost compared to nationalising). Except it won’t work, because any state company won’t be able to provide electricity cheaper — just as they can’t anywhere else in the world. Which sort of shows that nationalising will lead to more expensive electricity, because state firms aren’t cheaper.

But the Left seems stuck on the Venezuela solution nonetheless.

]]> By: Patrick Newman https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/unison-nationalise-the-big-six-and-create-a-green-army-to-help-the-uk-hit-net-zero/#comment-969534 Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:29:36 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=136967#comment-969534 The whole energy market is a great big smoke-filled hall of mirrors. There is no market because the supply of energy is a natural monopoly – gas is gas and electricity is electricity, you cant choose a different version of Ohms Law!. Privatisation was the crude ideological fantasy that Mrs Thatcher lived in. Like the other privatisations, we are all suffering the consequence of Thatcher’s pathological obsession. We need publicly accountable regional energy planning and management organisations and a national energy commission charged with continuity of supply and implementing a programme of reducing emissions to zero by 2035.

]]> By: Dave Roberts https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/unison-nationalise-the-big-six-and-create-a-green-army-to-help-the-uk-hit-net-zero/#comment-969533 Tue, 18 Jun 2019 16:25:59 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=136967#comment-969533 No Tom, nuclear power is bad. The fact that is the only practical way forward is lost on the eco lot who simply stamp their feet and have tantrums.

]]> By: Tom Sacold https://leftfootforward.org/2019/06/unison-nationalise-the-big-six-and-create-a-green-army-to-help-the-uk-hit-net-zero/#comment-969519 Tue, 18 Jun 2019 13:35:55 +0000 https://leftfootforward.org/?p=136967#comment-969519 Yes. Nationalise the energy suppliers.

But make sure that energy is cheap and the supply guaranteed.

We need tidal barriers and more nuclear power stations.

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