Sunday, August 07, 2022

"Revolution Has Begun": 75,000 Brits Plan To Stop Paying Power Bills In Protest At Energy Rip Off

 

Resistance is growing to spiralling domestic energy costs in Britain as more than 75,000 irritated people in the UK have pledged not to pay their electricity bill this fall when prices jump again. 

"75,000 people have pledged to strike on October 1st! If the government & energy companies refuse to act then ordinary people will! Together we can enforce a fair price and affordable energy for all," tweeted "Don't Pay UK," an anonymous group spearheading the effort to have more than one million Brits boycott paying their power bill by Oct. 1. 

The strike comes as an inflation storm of high energy prices has obliterated household incomes, and increasing public awareness that the increaes imposed by the energy companies are far in excess of what can be justified by rising costs of oil and gas on world markets. Opinion polling suggests we Brits are at our most miserable and passimistic about our future prospects in three decades as inflation is expected to hit 13%. And while Bank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey hiked interest rates the most in 27 years to tame inflation, a recession now looks inevitable. 

 

From Oct. 1, the average household will pay almost £300 a month for heating, lighting and cooking fuel, the BoE warned. Couple this outrageous increae in power costs with negative real wage growth, and it becomes apparent working class and middle class households are being made to bear the costs of government's mismanagement of the economy over three decades. As well as being hit by increaces in the cost of domestic fuel, prices of food and petrol at the pump are also rocketing -- this trend is unsustainable and could result in civil unrest.

UK financial journalist and broadcaster Martin Lewis said this about the strike:

"I think I can categorise it more accurately now, the big movement that I am seeing is an increase of growth in people calling for a non-payment of energy bills, mass non-payment. Effectively a consumer strike on energy bills and getting rid of the legitimacy of paying that.

"We are getting close to a Poll Tax moment on energy bills coming into October and we need the Government to get a handle on that, because once it starts becoming socially acceptable not to pay energy bills people will stop paying energy bills and you're not going to cut everyone off."

Meanwhile, Ofgem (UK energy regulator) Chief Executive Jonathan Brearley told BBC Radio 4's Today on news magazine program that people shouldn't join the strike for two reasons.

"First of all, it will drive up costs for everyone across the board. And secondly, if you are facing difficulty in paying your bill, the best thing you can do is get in touch with your energy company."

He added: 'I would not encourage anyone to withhold their paying their bill because that just damages things further and it will impact them personally.'

Last week, the UK government condemned the bill boycott , calling it "highly irresponsible." 

"This is highly irresponsible messaging, which ultimately will only push up prices for everyone else and affect personal credit ratings," a government spokesperson was quoted by The Independent.

Don't Pay UK estimates 6.3 million UK households will be driven into poverty this winter, unable to afford food and fuel, with millions more feeling the stress of out-of-control inflation. 

People on Twitter responded to the moment by saying, "the Revolution has begun" and "a bit of civil unrest on its way onto our streets & rightly so." 

Perhaps the movement's involvement will be an excellent proxy for the growing discontent festering among Brits that could result in civil unrest this winter as millions will struggle with keeping the lights on, the furnace hot, and putting food on the table. 

RELATED:

 

E U Central Bank Digital Currency Is The Death Rattle Of A Failed Experiment

The announcement from the European Central Bank (ECB) that is is to intrduce an official European Union digital currency spells the end of the European Single Currency experiment and with it the ambition of "ever closer union until the EU's member states were merged into a single political entity Digital Currencies might not quite be Ponzi schemes but on appearances the difference can be compared to that between a horse and a pony.

Negative Interest Rates - Final Nail In The Coffin Of Neoliberalism? Negative interest rates, in plain terms a situation in which we pay bankers for holding our money, are the latest ruse of politicians and economists to make uis start spending our investments and savings, thus kickstarting the global economy thy have screwed up.

The age of financial privacy is over
Yes you read that right. The fascist regime in the USA has usurped to itself the right to raid bank accoutns anywhere is the world. At the moment they are only stealing money by way of tax demands from people who were born on US soil even if those people have not lived in the USA since childhood and have never be employed by a US business.

Inland Revenue a Dysfunctional department that ‘can’t be trusted’ with power to raid bank accounts
Plans to let the taxman take cash out of people’s bank accounts without their permission were condemned by MPs after Rebecca Benneyworth, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, warned the department is ‘shooting itself in the foot.’ She told the ICAEW conference : ‘Public trust in HMRC would be eroded very quickly if cases come to light where funds have been incorrectly removed. ‘HMRC cannot afford to have public opinion turn against the tax system and those charged with administering it.’Accountants have warned HMRC cannot be trusted ...

Taxes Will Rise If Government Do Not Raid Bank Accounts Taxes will have to rise unless officials are given new powers to raid people’s bank accounts, David Cameron has said.

The Treasury select committee warned that allowing HM Revenue and Customs to remove cash from bank accounts without court orders is “very concerning” because of its history of mistakes.
The committee said that taxpayers could suffer “serious detriment” if officials are able, either by mistake or through an “abuse” of power, to take money from people who have done no wrong.

Magic Money - How The Fractional Reserve Banking System Conjures Money From Fresh Air:
A look at how the fractional reserve banking system works and how it brought the global economy and many people's personal finances close to collapse. It's really all about pulling magic money out of fresh air.

Investors Ignore Triple Dip Regession As Stock Market Hits Four Year High
News that the British economy was staring an unprecedented triple dip recession in the face left investors unperturbed yesterday as shares on Britain's leading index hit their highest point in since the crash four-and-a-half years ago.

Tax The Rich, Hurt The Poor
The loopy left in Britain and the USA have, throughout the cedit crunch, chanted their Tax The Rich mantra. Those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it of course and the left have still not learned from all the other economic catastrophes caused by attempts to redistribute wealth that taxing the rich huts the poor most.

The Folly Of Using Inflation To Reduce The Debt As the Obama administration starts to seriously consider minting Trillion dollar coins to reduce debt by fuelling massive inflkation the Daily Stirrer's finance expert explain why this would not work and would have catastrophic consequences.

A Dickensian Christmas Gift: Mister Micawber's Economic Wisdom
Despite the ever growing dunghill of evidence to the contrary lefty politicians around the world continue to call for higher taxes, more government spending and collectivist solutions while the clueless Obama administration embark on another futile round of "quantitative easing. What they are trying to do is inflate away debt but inflation is the curellist stealth tax. (Also posted at Scribd)

Anti Austerity Protests Bring European Capitals To A Standstill Angry protests have left many European capitals in chaos as millions of workers joined strikes against austerity measures they claim have made their national economies worse. Trade unions in Spain, Greece, Portugal and Italy staged a series of demonstrations throughout the continent on the ...

Government Powerless Against a New Wave Of Immigration The government is powerless to stop tens of thousands new migrants heading to Britain after a new EU borders shake-up, Theresa May has admitted. The Home Secretary yesterday warned the Government is legally unable to block Romanian and Bulgarian citizens from coming to the UK under an expansion of ...

Poverty tycoons who make themselves millionaires from taxpayer-funded foreign aid budgetIn responce to questions about Britin's overseas aid budget,David Cameron has said at the United Nations that rather than cutting aid to developing nations in these austere times UK taxpayers should be happy it is being increased. Meanwhile with her own millions safely tied up in trusts Hillary Clinton demands global wealth taxes to raise money for helping the disadvantaged.

The Folly Of Trying To Inflate Away Debt
As the debt crisis grinds on and the creit crunch mutates into the credit famine the clueless politicians and even more clueless economists and academics who advise them can only think of one course of action. That is to inflate away their debt problem by devaluing currency to the extent at whic a bag of potatoes or wheat grain costs $£€ 1 trillion. Inflation is the cruellest tax, destroying the savings and pensions of sensible people and rewarding irresponsibility.

Feeding The Monster
As Spain's economy nears collapse and economists call for Europe's taxpayers to stump up still more money for a bigger bailout fund to save bankrupt nations, The Daily Stirrer economic expert under his new nom de plume explains why efforts to save the Euro are throwing good money after bad.

[ Energy - green dreams ] ... [ Inflation as a tax ] ... [ Money & Finance index ]