Are We Heading For a New Winter of Discontent?

[callady]

This headline could easily be in the US Newspapers if we had a press. What do you see in your crystal ball for the winter? And what about the political climate which interplays and interrelates to our energy and economic situation?


Are we heading for a new winter of discontent?

By Jonathan Brown, Jeremy Laurance and Barrie Clement

Published: 22 October 2005

Britain could be left paralysed by energy shortages, a health crisis and gridlock on the roads if the predicted Arctic winter strikes with severity.

Prolonged sub-zero temperatures after nearly a decade of mild winters could result in the death of tens of thousands of people, with fears that the National Health Service faces the prospect of a full-blown winter bed shortage for the first time since Labour came to power in 1997.

The Confederation of British Industry warned that power shortfalls caused by the rising domestic demand to keep warm and Britain's dwindling strategic stockpiles could lead to factory shutdowns and a return to the three-day week. At present, only 11 days' supply of gas is being held in reserve, compared with 55 days' worth elsewhere in Europe. Consumer groups fear that hardest hit will be members of the two million poor households already struggling to cope with the 40 per cent rise in energy prices since 2003.

<snip>

Concern has been mounting since the Meteorological Office took the unprecedented step of issuing a long-range forecast predicting the likelihood of a much harsher-than-average winter. The "amber alert" was based on lower-than-average sea temperatures recorded near Iceland and off the Azores this spring. The findings are a typical precursor for a phenomenon known as the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) which has resulted in some of the harshest winters on record. The effects of the NAO were felt most spectacularly in 1963, when temperatures dropped as low as minus 22C, the Thames iced over and large swaths of southern England were blanketed more than a foot of snow for weeks on end.

<snip>

The Arctic temperatures could not come at a worse time for Britain's energy consumers. All six power companies have relentlessly increased prices in the past two years in the midst of worsening volatility in the global energy markets. Average customers can now expect to pay £750 a year on fuel costs. Already two million households are spending 10 per cent of their income on gas and electricity bills. Three-quarters of these are classified as vulnerable - among them the elderly, sick or very poor. "When it is really cold at a time when prices have already gone up dramatically, will people make the decision to keep warm? We pray to God that they do," said Adam Scorer, head of campaigns at Energywatch.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article321425.ece

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. We went past discontent, slid through malaise amd we're about

to enter into clinical depression.

[HockeyMom]

2. Getting into the low 40s at night

and it's only October. I hate to put the heat on for fear what my gas heating bill will be. But I woke up in the middle of the night shivering and couldn't' get back to sleep. I have to go to WORK in the morning. I cannot lose sleep or GET SICK.

[callady]

3. So far we haven't turned the heat on either

and tonight is to be in the 30's. Same fear of very high heating costs. We'll be putting in a wood stove in the next month.