Universal Basic Income

UBI should have been discussed and at least piloted over 10 years ago. In terms of other options, things like, don't trade gas prices as a global commodity so countries such as Mexico don't get ****ed over when some Russian despot invades a country on the European continent.

Also, maybe don't allow Ofgem to tip the balance in favour of the companies over consumers, that kind of defeats the point of a watchdog.

Maybe use the green levy to actually effect real change and get solar, wind and hyrdo infrastructure built.

Hey, here's a mad idea, how about building gas storage facilities like we had 20 years ago to protect against catastrophic price changes like we currently see. As its obvious the JIT model doesn't work.

Cut all the middleman nonsense and pay the generators direct. Why should a company take a slice when it does **** all?

Enact a law similar to Holland where all new builds have to have renewable energy infrastructure included such as solar or wind. And massively ramp up grants for existing homes to be retrofitted with solar or wind with battery storage where appropriate and charge higher rates to people using 'legacy' fuelling methods. Oh, and stop promoting heat pumps when in most cases people then need to spend a further few thousand to replace all the radiators in their houses, but you don't cover that.

Maybe re-introduce the EV grants to help people move to cleaner fuels alongside the battery storage at home which means people could drastically reduce oil usage too.

None of this is difficult to do, we've done similar scale projects in the past. Its just that a lazy bunch of Eton educated brown starfish would rather suck on the billionaire teats of their controllers.
 
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UBI should have been discussed and at least piloted over 10 years ago. In terms of other options, things like, don't trade gas prices as a global commodity so countries such as Mexico don't get ****ed over when some Russian despot invades a country on the European continent.

Also, maybe don't allow Ofgem to tip the balance in favour of the companies over consumers, that kind of defeats the point of a watchdog.

Maybe use the green levy to actually effect real change and get solar, wind and hyrdo infrastructure built.

Hey, here's a mad idea, how about building gas storage facilities like we had 20 years ago to protect against catastrophic price changes like we currently see. As its obvious the JIT model doesn't work.

Cut all the middleman nonsense and pay the generators direct. Why should a company take a slice when it does **** all?

Enact a law similar to Holland where all new builds have to have renewable energy infrastructure included such as solar or wind. And massively ramp up grants for existing homes to be retrofitted with solar or wind with battery storage where appropriate and charge higher rates to people using 'legacy' fuelling methods. Oh, and stop promtoing heat pumps when in most cases people then need to spend a further few thousand to replace all the radiators in their houses, but you don't cover that.

Maybe re-introduce the EV grants to help people move to cleaner fuels alongside the battery storage at home which means people could drastically reduce oil usage too.

None of this is difficult to do, we've done similar scale projects in the past. Its just that a lazy bunch of Eton educated brown starfish would rather suck on the billionaire teats of their controllers.
The problem I've seen with grants in the past is that you get loads of companies setting up to milk the grants and as soon as the grants finish the companies are wound up.
 
The problem I've seen with grants in the past is that you get loads of companies setting up to milk the grants and as soon as the grants finish the companies are wound up.
The grants aren't available to companies, but would be targeted at homeowners. Landlords would be covered too, but there would be checks and balances. The homeowner would never see the money directly, but the work would have to be done and certified by an independent audit, not tied to the company doing the work else its void and falls on the company to stump up the money, not the homeowner. Then the money is paid out of the central fund. The fund would also have the capacity to go after fraudsters and work with HMRC to convict them. Anyone found to be a government donor at any time is not allowed to compete for the tender to participate in the scheme, and that applies to a company registration and a named individual.

The issue with grants in the past is they were abused because people didn't think about how to manage the fraud. Well, I'm thinking about it this time in my world where this is actually a thing.
 
Nah. I’m not for universal basic income at a fixed rate. I think everyone should have a set percentage so if hits everyone the same percentage of household incomings. I don’t know what it would be? Maybe 20% absolute max for fuel and heating. ( I’m near that) although I don’t know how it would work or could be worked out.
 
Nah. I’m not for universal basic income at a fixed rate. I think everyone should have a set percentage so if hits everyone the same percentage of household incomings. I don’t know what it would be? Maybe 20% absolute max for fuel and heating. ( I’m near that) although I don’t know how it would work or could be worked out.
By that measure you can't be for a minimum wage because it equates to the same thing. If the government has thresholds for a minimum wage, then extrapolate that up and you have UBI. It should be, as a minimum, we will provide you with this amount of income in order for you to live a life and not worry about feeding your kids for example.

I'm a big advocate for UBI, but like you, I'm not sure how to implement it, I'm not an economics guy. I just think that having a section of society unable to just 'live' is fundamentally wrong.
 
Nah. I’m not for universal basic income at a fixed rate. I think everyone should have a set percentage so if hits everyone the same percentage of household incomings. I don’t know what it would be? Maybe 20% absolute max for fuel and heating. ( I’m near that) although I don’t know how it would work or could be worked out.
I have always been puzzled by this "household" income thing when claiming benefits. We are taxed individually so should receive benefits individually.
 
I have always been puzzled by this "household" income thing when claiming benefits. We are taxed individually so should receive benefits individually.
The idea is that a single person in their own property needs more support than each individual in a couple or family sharing one. It’s very poorly executed but there is some logic to it.

It’s obvious that the whole system needs to be overhauled. Something like UBI does away with all the indignity and admin of making claims for various benefits and it could replace government pensions too. People can’t moan about benefit scroungers if they’re getting it too.

It also has the added bonus of making work pay, which is going to be a huge issue with whatever the government decide to do. You could do away with the tax free allowances if UBI was high enough and any additional income would still benefit someone choosing to work.
 
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