Yes. At no point did I say that there was a 1:1 match between usage and generation for any given consumer at any given time.
The French generate more of their electricity from nuclear so they're less exposed to the gas prices. But they've also chosen to nationalise EDF and have that take the hit. They'll pay eventually through their taxes.
About 3/4
Is going back to traditional life means that ordinary people will be used to cold houses, and the family lives in a house of less than 100 square meters? and three meals a day are rice mixed with millet or bread mixed with barley, and only a little pickle, two saury and a bowl of miso soup. When someone gives your family a basket of fruit, you will be amazed and say "such a precious gift!".
There are solutions for houses like that (without cavity walls) though, such as insulating the inside walls or insulating the outside (both depending on the property). Plus there may be the option of underfloor insulation and improving the roof insulation further
No-one, other than you, is suggesting we do that
We should be working to resolve the problem permanently (by insulating properties), while we provide temporary essential support. We simply don't know when, or if, energy prices will come down, so it is essential that we work to eliminate the problem permanently at the earliest opportunity. Re the money, it will be cheaper to insulate sooner rather than later as there will be less time during which the temporary support is needed
It is an investment that will pay for its self in reduced future energy bill subsidies, and a reduced future burden on our NHS.
Do both, in parallel.
People to be warm, and in the medium term insulation is a way to achieve that at a lower cost than crediting everyone's electricity account with £400 or whatever the figure ends up being. Clearly, we cannot insulate every home overnight, but every home we do insulate is a family that can keep warm. And it's slightly less demand on our energy resources which helps everyone else. If we don't, then we will be in a permanent cycle of government subsidies.
Regarding insulation, surely a lot of people will improve their home insulation anyway, regardless of what government does as the current high energy prices means the pay back time will be a lot shorter than it was.
Yes they do but nearly 30% of nukes are off line for repairs and there wholesale price is far higher than ours but govt is intervening at source through EdF to hold prices down as a result there inflation rate hasn't taken off and thus their wage claims are manageable. In the UK we have utterly lost the plot by allowing the energy price cap to directly increase inflation rate then attempt to part offset the impact through subsidies but they aren't in CPI. So we get unions pushing for bigger pay rises not realising that many of their low paid workers will already be in receipt of additional benefits.
We are still paying for something called the Warm Home Discount scheme to the tune of £500m pa through a levy on our bills which is supposedly used to jelp poorer households improve energy efficiency.
And I guess chip shops, cafes and pubs could do likewise by simply not opening ....
I understand why people are rightly concerned about their own costs, but I fear many do not appreciated the wider picture. Comng so soon after the Covid restrictions, this will totally change the British landscape
