Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
If a number of economies all fell for the false belief the private sector alone could (and indeed would) satisfy all our needs that collective failure doesn’t detract for our own.
Given your penchant for British exceptionalism, I’d have expected you to have not accepted being the average of following the sheep as an excuse for our lack of energy security.
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My measure is I expect the role of the state is to ensure energy security rather than rely on “the markets”, Russia or the Middle East.
I expect when I flick the light switch it to go on. That’s my measure. I don’t live in South Africa where rationing is a part of life.
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How has any of that got anything to do with how "rich" a country is?
Only 5% of our gas requirements have come from Russia. For the EU as a whole it's 40%. Germany by itself 55%. Germany doesn't have any LNG facilities for importing gas, the UK has 3.
Which situation would you rather be in? UK, EU, Germany?
There were shortages and price increase before Russia did anything.
The problem is that each country will try and outbid others for whatever gas there is.
South Africa relies on ageing coal-fired plants, which are having problems, just as France's Nuclear plants are/were having problems.
At this very moment, we are exporting 1GW to France, 1GW to Belgium, and 1GW to the Netherlands. If it wasn't for the UK, one or more of those countries would be facing blackouts.