22/01/2016

COUNCILLOR POURS OIL ON TROUBLED WATERS


Considering the great debacle that is raging in the local press, internet and social media, regarding the council’s plans to close Ashton, Denton and Dukinfield’s municipal swimming pools; do you not  find it strange that our most vociferous councillor has not uttered a peep on the matter?
Doubly strange when you consider that the high profile councillor who in 2010, followed Colin Fielding as Chair of Tameside Sports Trust (Now Active Tameside) who had successfully chaired the board since the trust was established in 1999 and on taking over, boasted of a range of facilities managed by the trust, which included six swimming pools, which provided a range of sessions, lessons and clubs for all ages and abilities!

According to Carl Simmonds blog, there are 35 Tameside schools that currently use these swimming pools in order to teach Tameside school children to swim competently up to the safety standard required.  This does not include the therapeutic sessions for the elderly, the 'Little Ducklings', toddler groups, as well as providing swimming facilities for a number of clubs in the Ashton, Dukinfield and Denton areas, who, if the proposal to shut down the three pools goes ahead, would be shoehorned into a single pool and a splash pool, until the ‘super pool’ whose location has still to be decided, is eventually built!

So, rather than getting embroiled in the swimming pool debate, he chose this week to give us his in-depth knowledge of the world’s oil industries, and focused on why we are not benefitting more from these unprecedented commodity drops.

Of course, once again, his ramblings remind us that in some cases, acquiring a little knowledge can teeter on the brink of existential gibberish and by ignoring international politics, wars in the Middle East, immigration and the refugee crisis in Europe, coupled with the frantic opportunism of the world's bear market speculators, he attempted to lay the blame for international petro company greed at the door of the Government; providing a fine example of such.

Yes, the crude oil market is currently in oversupply and is valued at an all time low, but  John, the automotive user can't profit fully from that price-depressing factor, because they can't pump crude oil into their vehicles.
This is has resulted in a classic situation for extra profits for refiners and storage companies and that is why oil/gas shareholders are now cashing in on their investments. 
This is called capitalism, and is central to a free market economy!
Should the councillor delve a little deeper into other reasons why the price of crude oil has plummeted, he needs look no further than Saudi Arabia, who are hell bent on bankrupting US Shale Oil/Gas Fracking companies whose, costs of production are higher than the cost of the end product.
That’s why we currently see these and other oil companies like BP and Shell cutting their budgets. They are cutting their exploration expenditure and employment in anticipation of a period of lower oil prices and a fall in investment.
The price of crude oil, the linchpin of the world economy, has been swinging wildly wreaking havoc on consumers when it super spiked to $140 a barrel and now forcing bankruptcy on producers at less than $30.
                                                                                                                                                                                     This This situation also has a knock on effect on renewables.

 
Although renewable electricity, solar and wind don't really in many parts of the world compete with oil. They do compete with natural gas, they do compete with coal and so, if you have those low prices and many natural gas prices around the world are linked to oil prices, means that it’s going face a tougher competitive environment, because of lack of investment.

The other issue weighing on the oil/gas and financial markets is the slowdown in China. The important thing to note is whether China is moving from one type of economy to another or are there any structural problems, which could slow down the economy further.
Another factor the councillor might also consider is Russia. As we know Russia is heavily dependent on oil & gas revenues and there are some folks who do not approve of Mr. Putin.

And while the Dukinfield councillor is in the mood for ruminating on his remedies to fix world events, he might turn his attention to the latest proposal from the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who has now proposed that an extra levy be put on the price of petrol and enforced throughout the European Union to fund the refugee crisis and enforce Schengen’s external borders!
                                                                                                                   Surely, even the Bard of Dukinfield cannot ignore the irony, where Gulf States who refuse to take fellow Muslim refugees are flooding the market with oil, and politicians in the West put an extra tax on their citizens who use Gulf Oil to pay for them!


I defecate you not; we are being led by madmen!

7 comments:

  1. We are being led by madmen, cretins and traitors locally and nationally.
    The real problem however is the fundamentally gutless, selfish, moronic electorate who KEEP putting them in power no matter what.
    The mass immigration situation will lead to civil unrest and bloodshed on a scale not seen for centuries in Britain if DRASTIC action is not taken very soon.

    NO MORE!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous, I understand where you are coming from with your comments and empathize someway with your underlying anger when you claim that “We are being led by madmen, cretins and traitors locally and nationally.” And your opinion that the real problem is the fundamentally gutless, selfish, moronic electorate who KEEP putting them in power no matter what.
    But this situation is not new and has been a practice adopted by politico’s for eons!
    Lenin first coined the term ‘useful idiots’ in reference to those who he and his party used as tools for dispensing communist propaganda, to spread their totalitarian drivel.
    It's a term that can also be leveled to those who blindly support any ideology without seeking out a reason; it’s the –‘I vote Labour because mi’ Dad voted Labour’ syndrome or the one that gets themselves out of real work and causes others to pay their way.

    And while I’m on the subject, these days it also refers to those ‘useful idiots’ who post inaccurate definitions and banal claptrap on ‘social media’
    While they believe that they are making some sort of statement, they are actually providing perfect examples of the term!

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  3. The 'Labour 'til I die' dinosaurs are as deluded as they are dogmatic.
    The 'class war' is the past. The 'culture' war is the present and future.

    Corbyn knows this all too well which is why he spends so much time with 'the community' whether its posing arm in arm with community leaders outside Finsbury Park Mosque (that well known bastion of British patriots), or cruising round the Calais 'Jungle'.
    Marxist crank? maybe but he's got more idea of where Britain's currently headed than Cameron who's as soft as red hot butter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You mention local press, the main newspaper in Tameside is owned by New Charter housing
    and New Charter having strong connections with Tameside council therefore you'll never read any investigating reporting against either the council or New Charter in that 'newspaper.' Whatever your political leanings this is very bad for local democracy and without democracy you don't get progress.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That's why it's vital that local bloggers carry on the task!

    Talking of local 'democracy' I have been told that this blog is inaccessible from any of the council's computers!

    Hard to believe, isn't it?

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  6. Tameside Council/Big Brother censorship.
    Hand in hand with New Charter and its subsidiary companies. What I cannot comprehend though is the high number of Councillors,at least 6 including the Civic Mayor and Leader of the council which are currently Directors of the New Charter Group, (or have recently resigned).
    How can there be impartiality when awarding contracts,selling leasing land and the ultimate of giving land away when such people are in a high position of authority within the Council making decisions which probably would go unopposed.
    As to the blocking of websites within the Council certain ones are blocked from access, not just blocked by keyword. I wonder if a Freedom of Information request, requesting the data information, would reveal which and I suspect many websites and bloggers that are in fact blocked from access.

    The Blue Knight.

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  7. They can only get into a 'position of high authority' because the people put them there.
    In a few months, if the EU referendum is in June, we might find out just how fundamentally inferior the British electorate have become.
    An In vote means Turkey's 75 million Muslims, many of whom live in dire poverty, will very soon have free access to the land of milk and honey that is Britain.

    ReplyDelete

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