UK Oil – What an Idiotic Waste!

ToY · Post by **ToY** » 28 May 2006, 15:28

Here is an old blog of mine ? it really gets my goat that the UK was in a comfortable position in relation to ?Peak Oil? but our security has been utterly destroyed by the ghastly creatures in parliament over the last 35 years.

UK Oil ? What an Idiotic Waste!

The UK, in total, had about 30 billion barrels of accessible oil reserve. This could have been used to see the UK through the transition from an oil-based economy to alternative fuel and power without massive social and economic disruption (30 billion barrels is approximately 50 years of supply for the UK at the current rate of consumption).

What did successive UK governments do since the 1960s? They gave it all away to oil companies to sell as fast as they could on the world market, and gallingly during the ?Oil Age? period of depressed prices and over supply, so the nation made a pittance from the UK?s most valuable natural resource in tax revenues from the oil corporations.

Naturally there have been outcries over the decades from all quarters that the paramount resource of the UK is being squandered, but to no avail. As you might expect politicians have been given ?directorships? and other perks from the oil companies and have lined their own pockets at the expense of the nation. Never underestimate the stinking corruption and greed of politicians.

With no regard to the strategic importance of oil, no regard for how the nation will cope with a dwindling global oil supply, no regard for planning, no regard for the welfare of the population, successive UK governments have chosen immoral corrupt greed for their own benefit and doomed the population to a catastrophic shock when oil becomes scarce. It will take about one week of fuel shortages, power cuts and food shortages for the entire UK to turn into a lawless dangerous place.

The UK currently uses 1.76 million barrels per day (or 642.4 million barrels per year). As indicated above, this would have given the UK a 50 year time frame to adjust to the terminal decline in global oil supply (change power generation infra structure, find new production methods for liquid fuels for transportation, instil the necessary social changes etc.) However, the UK is now a net importer of oil and reserves currently stand at about 4 billion barrels (and most of this is the thick nasty muck that is the dregs of sucked-out fields). Even now oil companies extracting UK oil are selling a lot of the stuff abroad (to meet long-term ?contracts?) and the UK has to import more and more each month to keep the economy ticking over.

When the crunch comes UK politicians will come out with horsecrap like ?We had no idea reserves were so low? or ?There was nothing we could have done to prepare?. The swine have know all along and opted to line their own filthy corrupt pockets over the short-term, rather than plan and manage the UK?s resources in reasonable and moral fashion.

It will come as no surprise that almost all Members of the UK Parliament (and a further 50,000 rich UK citizens) have bought property (mostly in rural areas with land for food production) outside the UK in central and southern Europe (France, Spain etc. with a more amenable climate for self-sufficiency, food production and a low-fuel consumption life-style, than the UK).

These corrupt swine are going to cut and run when the crap hits the fan and leave the rest of us poor sods in the UK to descend into anarchy and barbarism (when food gets short and the lights go out).

MacG · Post by **MacG** » 28 May 2006, 16:15

Agree on the general approach, but do you have any references to the statement:

It will come as no surprise that almost all Members of the UK Parliament (and a further 500,000 rich UK citizens) have bought property (mostly in rural areas with land for food production) outside the UK in central and southern Europe (France, Spain etc. with a more amenable climate for self-sufficiency, food production and a low-fuel consumption life-style, than the UK).

Remember that "ownership" just as "money" is nothing more than agreements. The farmers in Zimbabwe thought that they "owned" their farms, just to find that some kind of majority did not honour the agreement of "ownership" anymore.

Complete societal disruption in the UK would cause ripple-effects over the globe, and frankly, I dont think that anyone in power have a "Plan B". It is beyond human capabilities to make such a plan without involving the rest of the society. Simply to many unknowns.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 28 May 2006, 19:50

It will come as no surprise that almost all Members of the UK Parliament (and a further 500,000 rich UK citizens) have bought property (mostly in rural areas with land for food production) outside the UK in central and southern Europe (France, Spain etc. with a more amenable climate for self-sufficiency, food production and a low-fuel consumption life-style, than the UK).

Most well off people that I know have holiday or retirement homes abroad.

They may be leaving the UK to avoid politics, the cold or immigration ... but probably not Peak Oil.

ToY · Post by **ToY** » 29 May 2006, 15:18

It was a typo ? I meant 50,000 (now corrected).

Indeed, some 250,000 UK citizens have homes abroad for holidays or with a view to emigration in latter life, but the 50,000 I should have cited specifically refers to those who had purchased self-sufficiency boltholes (with substantial land) abroad.

There was a blog by some geezer who knew about a company who was setting up the financial transactions self-sufficiency boltholes in France and Spain using offshore accounts and sneaky financial methods to avoid tax and disclosure of assets (by MPs and others) but his blog got wiped for some reason.

Anyway, the assertion is essentially true even if it cannot be proved.

It is getting really hard to discover the corruption of MPs these days as they use a variety of nefarious methods to cover their tracks, and hide money and assets.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 29 May 2006, 15:29

ToY wrote: the 50,000 I should have cited specifically refers to those who had purchased self-sufficiency boltholes (with substantial land) abroad.

Anyway, the assertion is essentially true even if it cannot be proved.

I don't doubt it. If you have a lot of money and a wish to keep it then it would make sense to have a Plan B ... to handle anything from Peak Oil to race riots.

I wonder how many are SPECIFICALLY worried about energy or Peak Oil ... probably a small minority ... unless it is a "dark secret" known by all The Toffs - which I greatly doubt.

Post by **clv101** » 29 May 2006, 15:51

I was in a meeting with Claire Short at the weekend and she mentioned oil "peaking" whilst talking about energy - certainly aware of the concept but she didn't seem specifically driven by it. She was mainly talking about not building new nuclear weapons to replace trident and calling for the electorate to deliver a hung parliament in 2010 since only with a hung parliament could electoral reform for pushed through allowing parliament to accurately represent the people.

dr_doom · Post by **dr_doom** » 29 May 2006, 21:01

and calling for the electorate to deliver a hung parliament in 2010 since only with a hung parliament could electoral reform for pushed through allowing parliament to accurately represent the people

Yes good idea, hang the lot of the useless bastards.

StephenCurran (Stef) · Post by **StephenCurran (Stef)** » 29 May 2006, 21:46

hey Doc

dr_doom wrote: Yes good idea, hang the lot of the useless bastards.

LOL!
There's something timeless about that sentiment....

Flash back to the middle ages "hang them at ye olde gallows by ye olde tavern"

And forward.
Hang them by the ye olde-hmm!-spaceport by ye olde-(ehh!)
decayed plant matter refinery.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 30 May 2006, 13:08

Yes good idea, hang the lot of the useless bastards.

LOL!
There's something timeless about that sentiment....

Except these days you can be thrown into jail as a suspected terrorist and kept there indefinitely without charge for saying such things . . .