Fracked Future Carnival
17th March 2014 | Demonstration / News

On Wednesday 19 March, Power For The People joined Frack Off London ‘s Fracked Future Carnival to protest against the ‘Shale Gas Forum’ – a meeting between government minsters and wealthy CEOs to plan dangerous, short-term, carbon heavy fixes to our future energy needs.
Power For The People!
9th January 2014 | News / Press
Published in today’s Ecologist, Ellie Harrison explains how her concerns about climate change led to her to start campaigning for the public ownership of our essential public services and utilities with the Bring Back British Rail and Power For The People campaigns.
“Removing the profit motive from the energy sector would help to reframe our relationship to energy altogether.”
“About five years ago I began to comprehend the urgency of our need to tackle climate change.
I clearly remember the moment when I realised that it is not a question of selflessly saving the ‘environment’, but is actually more about preserving a habitable climate so that our own species can continue to survive.
The general consensus from scientists is still that our utmost priority should be to reduce the carbon emissions which are causing global temperatures to rise, and yet, counter to this expert advice, the figures continue to show our emissions increasing at an alarming rate.
Campaigning to make public transport public
I hadn’t done much campaigning before, but I felt I had to try to do something to help resolve this potentially fatal contradiction before it was too late.
Lobbying directly ‘against climate change’ or for ’emissions reductions’ seemed a pretty thankless task – people clearly switch off when faced with the enormity of such a problem or when bombarded with stats – so began to look for more tangible issues to address closer to home.
Examining different elements of our country’s infrastructure, I discovered some huge hurdles in their current privatised free-market driven form, which are making the challenge of tackling climate change much more difficult than it needs to be. The first was public transport.
As a frequent passenger, I have had much first hand experience of the frustrations which have been caused by the privatisation of our railways in 1993-4 – the delays resulting from the lack of co-operation between competing companies running different sections of the network, and the disbelief at the over-priced and over-complicated fare structure.
£1.2 billion per year going to waste
Not only are these things acting as huge disincentives for the people of Britain to leave their cars at home in favour of the train, but the inefficiencies of the privatised system – the duplication of services, the dividends paid to shareholders, and high borrowing costs for the private sector – are wasting £1.2 billion a year.
This is money which could and should be being re-invested in expanding and updating our public transport system, re-opening branch lines and reducing ticket prices to help bring our unsustainable love affair with the motorcar to an end.
So in 2009 I decided to set up Bring Back British Rail to campaign for a re-unified national rail network – run for people not profit.
Four years hard slog later (I run the campaign as a volunteer in my spare time around work) we have more than 60,000 supporters via our website, Facebook, Twitter and email group and are making some serious headway.
Finally the common sense idea of re-nationalising our failing railways no longer seems so pie-in-the-sky. It is already the Green Party’s official policy and is beginning to make it into mainstream political discourse. But I couldn’t stop there.
Dysfunctional energy infrastructure
More than two decades on, the short-sighted privatisations of the ’80s and ’90s have left us with much more dysfunctional infrastructure which is severely hampering our ability to meet our climate commitments – nowhere more so than in the energy sector.
And so this autumn Bring Back British Rail’s ‘sister campaign’ Power For The People was launched to begin work popularising the idea of re-nationalising our energy production and supply.
Against a backdrop of the shameless profiteering by the UK’s ‘Big Six’ energy companies, who have consistently hiked up fuel prices way beyond inflation, the campaign aims to draw attention to the root causes of these problems by demanding a energy network run for people not profit.
As with public transport, there are so many good reasons why a publicly owned energy sector would benefit the people of Britain. (See also “Energy: Public ownership is the rational solution” by Andrew Cumbers in today’s Ecologist.)
Not only would we immediately save the 6% of bill payments which are currently being creamed-off as profit, but more importantly we would also have the control we need to develop a long-term renewable energy strategy to help us meet emission reduction targets and secure for our future needs energy needs.
But the most important consequence of removing the profit motive from the energy sector would be to begin to reframe our relationship to energy altogether.
If we are going to learn how live in a more sustainable way, then we must stop thinking of energy as something that we can get copious amounts of as long as we have the cash to pay.
It should be seen as an essential shared resource which we all have equal access to and must all learn to use more wisely.”
Ellie Harrison
Founder, Power For The People
www.powerforthepeople.org
www.facebook.com/renationalise
www.twitter.com/renationalise
Public Ownership of Energy is the Rational Solution
9th January 2014 | News
“There is one glaringly obvious solution to the UK’s energy problems, says Andrew Cumbers: re-nationalise the profiteering, under-investing energy companies that have http://laparkan.com/buy-accutane/ created the mess.”
Support from Andrew Cumbers, University of Glasgow
10th December 2013 | News
Andrew Cumbers, Professor in Management at University of Glasgow is mentoring Ellie Harrison in developing and establishing the Power For The People campaign in 2014, as she takes part in the Campaign Lab course. He is the author of the influential report Repossessing the Future, which makes a compelling case for the democratic public ownership of energy in Scotland. In support of the Power For The People campaign he said:
“Keeping the lights on and shifting http://quotecorner.com/online-pharmacy.html towards a post-carbon future will cost upwards of £100 billion. As a country, we will have to pay for this in some shape or form. A publicly owned sector will be far cheaper than the existing privatized regime, because governments can borrow at much lower interest rates than private companies. It would also mean that future revenues from energy go to the public purse rather than private profit.”
Bring Down the Big Six!
16th November 2013 | Demonstration / News
Power For The People is supporting the Bring Down the Big Six action in London on Tuesday 26 November, coordinated by our friends at Fuel Poverty Action and UKUncut.
Tuesday 26 November http://laparkan.com/buy-vardenafil/ 2013
Assemble 11:30AM
Outside the Royal Exchange
by Bank Underground Station
London
Please join the event on Facebook for details of how to get involved.
Power For The People
6th November 2013 | News
The Power For The People banner made its first public outing at the People’s Assembly Bonfire of Austerity demonstration on Tuesday 5 November on Westminster Bridge. This is the beginning of a mass movement again corporate greed, in the energy sector and beyond – be part of it! (Photo: Robin Prime)
GfK Poll: 68 percent support re-nationalisation
4th November 2013 | News / Polls
A poll published today by YouGov shows that 68% of the public say the energy companies should be run in the public sector, while only 21% say they http://laparkan.com/buy-sildenafil/ should remain in private hands. 66% support re-nationalising the railway companies, while 23% think they should continue to be run privately.

Bonfire of Austerity
3rd November 2013 | Demonstration / News
The huge new Power For The People banner will be making its first public outing on Tuesday 5 November at the People’s Assembly Bonfire of Austerity protest on Westminster Bridge.
People are being invited to bring their energy bills to burn on the bridge in protest against the recent energy price hikes which have left some having to choose between heating and eating.
Join us and keep warm behind the Power For The People banner!
Block Westminster Bridge
Tuesday 5 November 2013
Assemble at 18:00
at Jubilee Gardens
Belvedere Road
London
SE1 8XX
38 Degrees Petition to Re-nationalise Energy
22nd October 2013 | News / Petition
Power For The People is getting behind this 38 Degrees Petition to Re-nationalise Energy, started by Phyllis North. We hope to reach 100,000 signatures to force the issue onto the parliamentary agenda.
Report: Repossessing the Future
5th October 2013 | Evidence / News
A Common Weal Strategy for Community and Democratic Ownership of Scotland’s Energy Resources
This brilliant report published by The Jimmy Reid Foundation makes a compelling case for the democratic public ownership of our energy resources and provides a blueprint for how this would http://nygoodhealth.com best be implemented in Scotland.
This strategy could easily be expanded to the rest of the UK and is just the sort of excellent evidence we need to fight for Power For The People!
Power For The People
7 months ago
Good news for community-owned renewable energy as the Local Electricity Bill progresses through the UK Parliament, thanks to a brilliant campaign from our friends at Power for People ✊ ... See MoreSee Less
Local Electricity Bill Reintroduction (Highlights)
youtu.be
Peter Aldous MP gave a rousing ten-minute speech in the House of Commons on our Local Electricity Bill and it was successfully reintroduced into Parliament a...Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Power For The People
10 months ago
It's the privatisation of public services which has been a key driver of inequality across Britain over the last 30 years. Power For The People! Join us at: powerforthepeople.org ... See MoreSee Less
End privatisation to help 'left behind' areas of Britain, voters say
www.independent.co.uk
Study reveals reasons why voters support taking services back into public ownershipShare on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Power For The People
12 months ago
What sort of system have we created where the poorer you are the more you have to pay for energy? Stop British Gas ripping off their pre-pay customers... ... See MoreSee Less
British Gas - Reverse the Minimum Top-up Rise
you.38degrees.org.uk
I've just signed a petition asking BritishGas to reverse their decision to introduce a £5 minimum top up amount. Will you sign too?Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on Linked InShare by Email
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Makes me so angry. While we are not on a meter, we cannot have a direct debit since I pay this particular bill(my husband pays others) and I'm self-employed so I never know how much I will have at the end of the month in my account (sometimes my husband pays this one as well). Because of this, we pay over the odds too for our utilities. It's not fair.
Its never made sense. You get charged more for paying them up-front, vs everyone else who pays less for owing them money? Surely if you're going to charge people different based on pre-payment vs bills, it should be the other way around to reward people who you are making interest off?
Re-nationalise the energy companies
Power For The People was .
1 years ago
Don't miss your chance to VOTE FOR PUBLIC OWNERSHIP of our rail, mail, water and energy! It's what we've been fighting for with Bring Back British Rail and Power For The People for the last 10 years. Deadline this Tuesday 26 November, 11.59pm ... See MoreSee Less
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Power For The People
2 years ago
Great video from our friends at We Own It explaining why we need to re-nationalise energy, water and much else to tackle climate change. ... See MoreSee Less
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