but in the UK we twiddle with the market in the hope that it will result in storage being kept/increased

Worse, we chose to shut down our large storage facility to save money, then allowed the supply to be provided by companies run out of bedrooms with the financial clout of a 12 year who couldn’t hedge their way out of a paper bag, let alone buy £bn of gas in long term contracts…..

we chose to shut down our large storage facility to save money, then allowed the supply to be provided by companies run out of bedrooms with the financial clout of a 12 year who couldn’t hedge their way out of a paper bag

You are quite right… financial fiddling instead of holding a surplus inside the country at all. The opposite of planning in security.

Anyway, add an increase in Council Tax to your increasing non-discretionary outgoings…

Council tax may need to rise by up to 5% a year for the next three years – the latest in a long list of warnings that the cost of living is expected to increase substantially https://t.co/wdjW9Xjjxh

— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 7, 2021

And narrowing which renewals we rely on (by all but stopping any new on land wind, solar, tidal, and pump store developments).

The more I read this thread the more I’m thinking we sell up and annex the parents barn in France.

They’ll be having all the problems we have *plus* they’ll be bailing out Italy and Spain.

What having to import gas to prop up their lack of electricity ?

Good point, I take that back.

France have plenty of nuclear capacity and space to build more, they have reliable carbon free energy, we don’t.

We’re substantially more ****ed than them.

Yeah it’s no utopia

It’s not far off. More space, they respect their kids and vice versa. They have the med, they have mountains.

What having to import gas to prop up their lack of electricity ?

No, you’re thinking of Germany, mostly Russian gas keeping them going.

It’s almost like there is no proper energy strategy for the country…

It’s called “leave it to the market” – it’s a strategy, but you’re right, not a proper one.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58637094

We now import more than half our gas – much of it from Norway, and a considerable amount from the Netherlands and Belgium.

The UK has been badly hit because it’s one of Europe’s biggest users of natural gas – 85% of homes use gas central heating, and it also generates a third of our electricity.

That BBC article is basic but informative. Recommended reading before making any comments on UK gas supplies.

There’s not much that’s essential and we’re “self sufficient” in. And we can’t be, which is why we need smooth access to our connected markets and strategies to cope with the things we used to coordinate Europe wide but now have lost control of (Internal Energy Market, Common Agricultural Policy etc). It’s one thing to decide not to be involved with Europe wide food and energy security planning, but that means doing it ourselves, on our own. Ask anyone in UK food production of any kind, at any level, if they have seen any sign that our government is even interested in doing the job the PM and cabinet persuaded them to let us give them. They wanted to take full control of keeping us fed and warm… so they should get on and do it. Remembering that they promised lower prices would result from that as well.