Independent Advice?

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Remember a couple of weeks ago when we heard this:

Ed Miliband wants consumer groups to improve uncompetitive markets

Labour leader says Competition and Markets Authority would seek independent advice on tackling suppliers and regulators
Miliband said on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme that under Labour plans, bodies such as Citizens Advice and Which? would work with the Competition and Markets Authority to define a programme for the year ahead. The idea is to highlight areas that parliament and the business secretary should be focusing on.
Miliband will be taking advice on how to regulate Business from the likes of consumer group Which?….you may have had doubts about that to start with….how many more doubts when you read this:

What is Milibandism?

Your guide to the key intellectual texts, thinkers and activists

Independent thinktanks and charities

IPPR (Institute for Public Policy Research) Run by Nick Pearce (former policy unit head at No 10), it devises policy in terms of what might work in an era of no money.

Resolution Foundation Its director, Gavin Kelly (former deputy chief of staff to Gordon Brown), is the man with the PowerPoint slides that tell the whole squeezed-middle story.
Which? Consumer charity whose head, Richard Lloyd, a former No 10 adviser, has a backstage pass to the offices of Eds Miliband and Balls.
Nice to get confirmation of what we knew already about the Resolution Foundation, and interesting that they and the IPPR are classed as ‘independent’ by the Guardian……and  the BBC never revealed the link between Labour and the head of Which?  Which might be relevant to the story….not an independent group siding with Labour purely because it thinks his policies are consumer friendly…but maybe a suspicion that it is because the boss is a Labourite….just more State control of Business using supposedly independent advisors.
Red Ed gets redder.
Richard has also worked for two years in No10 Downing Street as an adviser to the Prime Minister, dealing with economic issues across the government, including strategy, communications and consumer policy.
And in 2013 when ‘Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour Party, delighted his supporters when he announced that Labour will freeze UK gas and electricity bills if they come to power in the next election.’…..
Which? Executive Director, Richard Lloyd, said: “We now look forward to seeing the detail of how this will work. “Wholesale costs are the biggest part of the eye-watering rises to energy bills that people have faced over the last 10 years. “Making the wholesale market competitive by separating energy generation from supply is essential to help keep prices in check.”
Guess Lloyd was one of those ‘delighted supporters’.

Cut the Big Six Energy Companies Down to Size, George

Posted 31 October 2013 | (00:00)

With almost eight in 10 people worried about rising energy costs and suppliers being hauled in front of MPs to justify their latest inflation-busting price hikes, Which? is calling on the Chancellor to stand up for consumers.

The Truth Behind Spiralling Energy Prices

Posted 14 October 2013 | (01:00)

We’ve all seen the rather undignified blame game around why our energy prices are rising.

Some people blame the cost of wholesale energy. Some people blame the government’s green subsidies and policies.

Some blame the ‘greedy profiteering energy fat cats’. Some have even blamed consumers for not helping…

Ed’s Price Promise a Bold Move

Posted 25 September 2013 | (01:00)

Ed Miliband’s promises at the Labour Party Conference will give hope to the millions worrying about how they will heat their home this winter. Consistently, we find that rising energy prices is one of the top worries for hard-pressed consumers with some people even having to dip in to their…

 

Regulator Needs to Work Hard to Prove It Can Change Banking

Posted 26 June 2013 | (01:00)

Published last week, the long-awaited Parliamentary Commission into Banking Standards (PCBS) final report weighed in at 550 pages and included a long list of recommendations designed to tackle the broken culture in the UK’s banking industry.

Which? has long been campaigning for a Big Change in banking to put customers…

 

The Government Needs to Green Up its Act

 Posted 21 May 2012 | (01:00)

As the prime minister is reportedly reviewing the coalition’s flagship Green Deal, we want him to take this opportunity to make big changes to ensure this scheme turns out to be a good deal for consumers.

Which? supports the ambition for homes to be more energy efficient and we welcome…

 

 

 

So…banking, green policies and reining in the energy companies, remarkably close to Miliband’s own agenda.

Good to know who has which finger in which political pie…I would think that Lloyd’s political affiliation’s were very relevant considering the influential role Miliband is intent on giving him….disguised under cover of his role as ‘consumer’s champion’ at Which?.

Maybe the BBC can keep us informed about such relationships…after all they were pretty keen to examine in detail Tory advisor Lynton Crosby’s ‘shocking conflict of interest’ when the opportunity came up.

 

 

 

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8 Responses to Independent Advice?

  1. Peter Grimes says:
    February 4, 2014 at 6:21 pm

    Al JaBeeBa NEVER label their so-called ‘independent think tanks’ with the Leftist name they merit.

       24 likes

  2. stuart says:
    February 4, 2014 at 6:47 pm

    i am getting sick and tired of posh multi millionaire socalist boy eddie milliband blabbing on about how he is going to help the working classes and poor people in society by freezing the energy prices untill 2017 if he wins power, to bloody late eddie because it is because of you that these greedy selfish energy companys panicked and whacked up there prices in fear of this ill thought out proposal of yours,in effect you eddie triggered of these energy price hikes and we are all going to suffer when we all get are energy bills in the coming weeks,see the thing is it is all smokes and mirrors when it comes to the labour party and there energy policy because it is them lot that have caused all these prices rises when they was in power with there pathetic global warming green taxes that makes up 50% of are bills and this other dumb proopsal of freezing the prices until 2017,well thats it then,what more can i say.

       23 likes

  4. onlyne says:
    February 4, 2014 at 8:14 pm

    I’ve never really understood what a “think tank” is. Even so, I think every time one is cited, it should be a requirement that we are told (a) who funds it, and (b) who its director is. The BBC seems to think just by saying someone is from a “think tank”, their opinions are of value. But how do we know…who and what exactly are these organisations?

       17 likes

    • pah says:
      February 5, 2014 at 1:12 pm

      A Think Tank is basically an organisation that employs less useful Normans so that they can supplement their already large incomes with more cash.

      How else are they expected to afford their villas in Provence and Tuscany without such income?

         4 likes

  5. #88 says:
    February 5, 2014 at 12:18 am

    As was mentioned when Miliband first launched this bandwagon, Which? has another hard-lefty, Staggers and Fabian contributor and former adviser to Milband, Sonia Sodha, as its head of public services and consumer rights.

    If you read some of her stuff on the Fabian and New Statesman sites, it is pure Miliband; ‘Responsible capitalism’, ‘pre distribution’ squeezed middle’, etc. etc. etc. In short, Sodha IS Miliband.

    One thing is becoming quite clear, Miliband cannot be trusted; what he says is not what you get. Miliband is, like the quango issue, putting placemen at the heart of Government, pretending them to be independent.

    You’d think with their enormous resources the BBC, like a few of us here, could simply press a couple of search buttons and find out what is really going on…or at least expect them to ask a few probing questions. But on this…on his ‘new relationship’ with the Unions…on Labour’s lurch to the hard left? It is clear, NO we cant.

       9 likes