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Considering the great debacle that is raging in the local press, internet and social media, regarding the council’s plans to close Ashton, Denton and Dukinfield’s municipal swimming pools; do you not  find it strange that our most vociferous councillor has not uttered a peep on the matter?
Doubly strange when you consider that the high profile councillor who in 2010, followed Colin Fielding as Chair of Tameside Sports Trust (Now Active Tameside) who had successfully chaired the board since the trust was established in 1999 and on taking over, boasted of a range of facilities managed by the trust, which included six swimming pools, which provided a range of sessions, lessons and clubs for all ages and abilities!

According to Carl Simmonds blog, there are 35 Tameside schools that currently use these swimming pools in order to teach Tameside school children to swim competently up to the safety standard required.  This does not include the therapeutic sessions for the elderly, the 'Little Ducklings', toddler groups, as well as providing swimming facilities for a number of clubs in the Ashton, Dukinfield and Denton areas, who, if the proposal to shut down the three pools goes ahead, would be shoehorned into a single pool and a splash pool, until the ‘super pool’ whose location has still to be decided, is eventually built!

So, rather than getting embroiled in the swimming pool debate, he chose this week to give us his in-depth knowledge of the world’s oil industries, and focused on why we are not benefitting more from these unprecedented commodity drops.

Of course, once again, his ramblings remind us that in some cases, acquiring a little knowledge can teeter on the brink of existential gibberish and by ignoring international politics, wars in the Middle East, immigration and the refugee crisis in Europe, coupled with the frantic opportunism of the world's bear market speculators, he attempted to lay the blame for international petro company greed at the door of the Government; providing a fine example of such. Yes, the crude oil market is currently in oversupply and is valued at an all time low, but  John, the automotive user can't profit fully from that price-depressing factor, because they can't pump crude oil into their vehicles.
This is has resulted in a classic situation for extra profits for refiners and storage companies and that is why oil/gas shareholders are now cashing in on their investments.
This is called capitalism, and is central to a free market economy!
Should the councillor delve a little deeper into other reasons why the price of crude oil has plummeted, he needs look no further than Saudi Arabia, who are hell bent on bankrupting US Shale Oil/Gas Fracking companies whose, costs of production are higher than the cost of the end product.
That’s why we currently see these and other oil companies like BP and Shell cutting their budgets. They are cutting their exploration expenditure and employment in anticipation of a period of lower oil prices and a fall in investment.
The price of crude oil, the linchpin of the world economy, has been swinging wildly wreaking havoc on consumers when it super spiked to $140 a barrel and now forcing bankruptcy on producers at less than $30.
This This situation also has a knock on effect on renewables.

Although renewable electricity, solar and wind don't really in many parts of the world compete with oil. They do compete with natural gas, they do compete with coal and so, if you have those low prices and many natural gas prices around the world are linked to oil prices, means that it’s going face a tougher competitive environment, because of lack of investment.

The other issue weighing on the oil/gas and financial markets is the slowdown in China. The important thing to note is whether China is moving from one type of economy to another or are there any structural problems, which could slow down the economy further.
Another factor the councillor might also consider is Russia. As we know Russia is heavily dependent on oil & gas revenues and there are some folks who do not approve of Mr. Putin.

And while the Dukinfield councillor is in the mood for ruminating on his remedies to fix world events, he might turn his attention to the latest proposal from the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, who has now proposed that an extra levy be put on the price of petrol and enforced throughout the European Union to fund the refugee crisis and enforce Schengen’s external borders!
Surely, even the Bard of Dukinfield cannot ignore the irony, where Gulf States who refuse to take fellow Muslim refugees are flooding the market with oil, and politicians in the West put an extra tax on their citizens who use Gulf Oil to pay for them!

I defecate you not; we are being led by madmen!
Posted by Curmudgeon at 1/22/2016 08:18:00 am 7 comments: 



I'm taking an unprecedented few extra days off work this year, but I still wanted to take an opportunity to wish you and your families a very whatever doesn't offend you!



Back with a vengeance soon.

Posted by Curmudgeon at 1/04/2016 01:46:00 pm 4 comments: