The new Labour government has announced that its flagship Great British Energy will indeed make a boat-load of money. But the green gimmick isn’t pouring cash into the public purse – at least not for now. Instead, GB Energy will now be the jewel in the crown (estate) for the royal slush fund.
That’s right, Labour’s key renewable plan – the one it promised would bring down astronomical energy bills – has its first beneficiary. And it’s not you. Fresh out of his first speech for the new administration, ol’ Charlie boy in gaudy pomp and ceremonial crown is getting the government-given gift of GB Energy profits on a silver-encrusted platter.
‘Public energy company’ king Charles the third’s golden throne-engirded arse.
Great British Energy: a great British con
On Thursday 25 July, the Labour government publicised its latest plans for its Great British Energy green power company. Predictably, the corporate and mainstream media was falling over itself to spread the news.
The outlet with the biggest boner for corporate capitalist Labour (yes, I mean the Guardian) led with the headline:
Offshore wind to power 20m homes within five years, Starmer to pledge
Meanwhile, the Telegraph – the media equivalent of Victorian LARPer Rees-Mogg when it comes to climate crisis denial – went with the title:
Climate change danger justifies biggest ever taxpayer investment in renewables, says Government
Right-wing Times instead honed in on the dividends, with the gleeful hand-rubbing headline:
Ed Miliband: Great British Energy will make profit in next five years
Of course, while all those gushing headlines sound kind of good on paper, the mouthpiece media kept rehashing the Labour government’s now incredibly irksome white lie. Specifically, the party boasted in the run up to the election that the project is a ‘public energy company’. The reality of course was that this wasn’t remotely the case.
As the Canary pointed out, it’s actually a PFI-style initiative – essentially:
a ruse to funnel public funds into corporate profit-making
Unfortunately, the fib has stuck, evidently. This is even after Labour lord Pat McFadden fessed up in a Kuenssberg Sunday bombshell classic – just days before the election no less.
Of course, it only gets better. What is it now, you ask? Chief in its announcement was the Great British Energy’s plans to partner with the Crown Estate.
Crown Estate: royals rolling in profits
As the BBC reported:
British seabed owned by the Crown Estate will be used to help build windfarms in plans aimed at making the UK more self reliant for energy.
It is the first big announcement by Great British Energy, Labour’s new publicly owned energy company. The firm’s aim is increase renewable energy projects, boosted by £8.3bn in state funding, paid for by a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.
As always, the devil is in the deep blue seabed. That is, the underwater lands the royal family did bugger all but be born with silver spoon on tongue to own. Notably, the BBC article acknowledged how:
The Crown Estate already had this as a target, but on Thursday the government confirmed it would help.
In other words, Great British Energy will funnel public funds towards the Crown Estate. This will help it meet it’s offshore renewables target. Because it clearly couldn’t have done that without a cash injection from the public purse.
What’s more, it was uncanny timing too. It was only yesterday (quite literally) that the corporate media broke the news of the Crown Estate’s soaring £1.1bn profits.
The ardent Royalist David Cameron-devised ‘sovereign grant’ means that the royal parasites get ever-burgeoning pay-outs from the Crown Estate almost every year.
Where did those stonking profits mostly materialise from this past year? Wind power. In the 2023, the royal family magnanimously slashed the sovereign grant from 25% to 12%. It did so in response to its flush of money from wind farm auctions. So while the grant dipped, the royal family’s income from it has actually soared.
The day after ‘Sir Kid Starver’s’ Labour voted to keep kids in poverty and suspended seven rebel MPs who defied the party whip, king Charles is in for a whopping £45m payrise. That is, the royal family’s payout from the Crown Estate will jump from £86m in 2024-25 to £132m in 2025-26.
The Guardian highlighted that it could have been worse:
If the 25% formula had continued, the monarchy would have received £275m in 2025-26.
Great British Energy-gilded fortune
Sky News business correspondent Paul Kelso called out the absurdity of the monarch waving his sceptre around like it’s Neptune’s fucking fork:
Your annual reminder of the anachronism that the seabed beneath our sceptre’d isle is owned by the Crown Estate & taxpayer relies on a handshake deal with monarch for profits. Strikes me the wind power rights, bought, loaned or seized, make an ideal first investment for GB Energy https://t.co/FPvpJ6sfc1
— Paul Kelso (@pkelso) July 24, 2024
Trident or not, his landed arse gets reign of the seas and will haul in a Great British Energy-gilded fortune:
GB Energy is going to “partner with the Crown Estate” on its windfarm energy projects. The Crown Estate reckons it ‘owns’ the seabed which circles the UK from the coast to 5 miles out. So GB Energy will be generating profits for the monarch’s slush fund. How much @Ed_Miliband ? pic.twitter.com/38teMpiqvK
— brixton hatter (@BrixtonHatter) July 25, 2024
This fucken idiot is talking about GB energy. He is talking about the crown estate that owns the seabed yes a family that gets taxpayers money is getting more money because they by history owns a seabed . The fucken bullshit is unbelievable pic.twitter.com/6gwew833af
— William. (@garryowen1888) July 25, 2024
This announcement on GB Energy today, apparently there is some deal to be done with the Crown Estates. So does this mean Charlie will have his sausage shaped fingers in the pie?
— Marion Main – Extremist according to Rishi Sunak (@marionmain3) July 25, 2024
At the end of the day, it’s the political establishment doing what it does best:
Well put. They are in the same club; it’s called The Establishment Club, an exclusive membership institution, connected by multiple threads of self interest between its members. https://t.co/cTA7CoonC0
— Red Fox (@RHardman7) July 25, 2024
Great British Energy is green capitalism for the elite. So of course that includes the crowned climate colonialist with enough greenwashing to his name to fill a palace or two, maybe three, to their sovereign grant-funded brand-spanking new rooves.
Feature image via the Canary
