Category Archives: British Labour

OFGEM Announcement

I should have known better

Considering myself a canny consumer I always shop around for the best deals for my electricity supply (no gas here, see It’s a gas, gas, gas). So i was relatively pleased with myself when I found a good deal with a company called GB Energy Supply. The name very nearly put me off but it was a good deal so I went ahead with the switch, but I should have known better.

Like the non existent country that this company is named after this company went bust. But they didn’t bother to tell anyone about their financial troubles. The first I heard of it was on a news site. So I went to the website but it was down, then I went to OFGEM. To be fair they provided plenty of reassurance and information about what was happening. But I had some concerns about whether I would ever see the credit that I had with GB energy again.

That was two days ago and yesterday came the news that a Supplier of Last Resort had been found. That supplier is Co-operative energy.

OFGEM Announcement

OFGEM Announcement

I also receive an email from my new energy supplier telling me that they will honour the terms of my contract with GB Energy Supply, so I keep the same tariff and that they would give me the credit that I had built up. So far so good.

But then I did some digging, being an ethically minded person after all. I thought that I should do some due diligence and see who this new supplier was. It turns out that they are part of the Mid-counties co-operative. Which in turn are part of the Co-operative group.

Digging around some more and I find that the Co-operative group had donated a big wad of cash to the Co-operative party in Q3 2016. £312800 to be precise.

Co-operative Group Donations

Co-operative Group Donations

Then I looked for the Co-operative party and I found their website here.

About the Co-operative Party

About the Co-operative Party

Further down the page I find this:

Co-operative Party Politicians

Co-operative Party Politicians

So if I stay with this energy supplier I will be directly funding Unionist politicians, warmongers,  WMD fans and ermine socialists. Why would I want to do that?

So that’s it I’m off to another energy supplier as soon as I can. If you’re one of the 160000 former GB Energy Supply customers you may wish to reconsider this offer too.

Liam Byrne's note

Hard right Labour splinter group forms

Is this the start of the break up of the Labour party? A new splinter group has formed called Red Shift, which is uncannily close to what would happen if you ate too many strawberries. It is composed of Liam Byrne, Shabana Mahmood, Heidi Alexander, Nik Dakin and Caroline Bradley. Some of you may remember the note that Liam left in the treasury when Labour lost to the Tory/Lib Dem coalition which said, “there was no money left.”

Red Shift

Red Shift

The splinter group seems to be composed of personalities from the far right of the Labour party. They have produced a report titled “Looking for a new England” in which they espouse their views of what went wrong for Labour during the recent election and how they can regain power. It would seem that the grand idea is to appeal to UKIP and Tory voters by adopting far right English Nationalist policies, but without the “hatred and bigotry of far right extremists.” They also identify the silver vote as a key group to win votes from. The policies they espouse would appear to be at odds with Corbynomics.

The report itself reads like a UKIP manifesto with phrases like, “We have to find new ways to accommodate a positive English nationalism and pride” and, “Put Labour firmly on the side of those big businesses”. These guys are further to the right than Tony Blair was.

Happily Scotland get’s a mention too, “Until Labour understands and embraces English identity the SNP threat and proposals on English votes for English laws will continue to damage Labour’s electoral prospects in English marginal seats.” So it would appear that they have already given up any hope of electoral success in Scotland, they seek only to, “build a majority in England.”

Is this right-wing splinter group just a wee plook on the face of Labour? Or is it the start of a huge, hard right boil which will erupt and spew puss all over the Labour party? Only time will tell.

Confessions of a Vile Cybernat

Once upon a time there was a political party which stood up for the rights of the workers. It stood shoulder to shoulder with the men and women who strove every day against poor pay and poor working conditions. And the people were glad.

Then came Blair who wanted power above all else, he cosied up to big business and left the people behind. He brought us illegal war with sidekick Brown. Brown went on to bring us the biggest bust since the 1930’s along with Better Together’s Alistair Darling. And lo the people were sad.

Then they climbed into bed with the tories during the Scottish Independence referendum. It was the penultimate act from a party which had lurched so far to the right that Adolf would have blushed. The people despaired. Even a big hitter from London couldn’t save them with promises of booze at football and a bigot’s hymn sheet.

Their final act before they get completely annihilated at the Scottish Government elections is to produce a list of every Tweet which they didn’t like and publish it in the right-wing press, they have become the tories’ bag carriers. Instead of trying to re-engage with their former voters they have decided to alienate all of them. Kezia Dugdale’s dad must be so proud of what his daughter has become, a stooge for the Daily Mail.

What on earth do they think they are doing? Trying to attack the SNP with a list of dodgy Tweets isn’t going to work, the people who they are listing already vote SNP (probably). All they will succeed in doing is ensuring that those voters will never return. All for what? A few column inches on their masters’ organ. This really is the end.

I’m sure that we are all looking forward to our names in the papers again. If that is the price to be paid for being politically active, bring it on.