Approximately two thirds of the UK electricity supply is owned by foreign companies. German, French and Chinese firms – amongst other nationalities – also own large parts of our gas and water supplies.
A single company – owned by a Chinese investor called Li Ka-Shing with close ties to the Chinese Communist (sic) administration – worryingly now controls around a third of the UK electricity supply and a quarter of UK’s gas supplies not to mention water, communication, and other important UK infrastructure networks.
It is firms like this – mainly foreign ones – which have apparently ‘declared war’ on Labour’s idea to freeze energy bills – even issuing dark warnings of blackouts if UK consumers don’t agree to keep on paying the more and more exorbitant price rises they demand.
In other words they’re threatening to cut us off if we don’t pay up.
I’ve warned before of the wisdom – or lack of it – of successive UK governments allowing important UK infrastructure to fall under the control of private companies – especially ones with close connections to foreign governments.
No other country would allow their essential infrastructure to be owned by foreign firms without any domestic controls.
Even in the US – hardly a bastion of socialism – many states impose controls on foreign investment of infrastructure and even have price controls for essential services such as gas and electricity supplies.
So why is it only the UK which is so reluctant to stand up to these bullies?
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Further reading:
​Does it matter who owns the UK’s utilities? (Utility Week)
Buying Up Britain (Management Today)
Foreigners Sell British Energy Assets To Other Foreigners (Management Today)
Chinese investments in the UK top £8bn (Want China Times)
Britain for sale: How long before a foreign power turns out Britain’s lights? (Daily Mail)
Satire like Porn? How 3UK are bringing Chinese-style political censorship of web to UK (Tom Pride)
Never mind a UK referendum on ceding power to Brussels. What about China? (Tom Pride)
