The trouble is that much of our backup depended on gas and interconnectors. Gas has been effected by the war. The interconnector capacity by French nuclear problems. Those nuclear problems have exasperated gas supply problems.
There are steps the government could have taken. In hindsight maybe we should have kept more coal stations available. And gas storage should have been maintained. And we definitely should have built out more onshore wind. But I don't think the system is mismanaged. And we are probably better placed than much of mainland Europe for this winter. We did build some massive offshore windfarms.
If it is down to the Tories then they have really screwed up the EU as well!
https://www.iamexpat.de/expat-info/german-expat-news/energy-...
> With U.S. crude oil production nearly doubling from 2009 to 2015, Congress repealed the crude oil export ban in December 2015—allowing the free export of U.S. crude oil worldwide.
https://ballotpedia.org/Crude_oil_export_ban
Yep, a country can do it and has done it.
Obviously the war plays an important role but Tory economic philosophy is well at work here as well, just like in any other public sector.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/sep/24/how-uk-ener...
You forgot food banks, people having to choose in between heating and food, and poverty suicides. Also, clowns - psychopathic clowns. Lots of them...
It has always been thus.
Maybe the issue in the UK isn’t as simple as tax rates. But you can always try to pivot hard left, maybe it will work this time. Capital does tend to flee when serious attempts to expropriate it occur…
What we don't have is large domestic natural resources, or access to the global market guaranteed by force of arms. We used to have that, but we had to give it up due to the Second World War and also morality (admittedly that part came with hindsight and without prerequisite contrition and apologies).
Well, here in the US, I still buy electricity from the government. Consumer energy deregulation in the UK started in the late 80s and electricity has been sold through private companies for years.