Lord Mogg of Queen's Park and Wanker in Chief at OfGEM, ludicrously overpaid and useless ornament

Poor old Freedom Fighter Sir Bob Mugabe. This week he will suffer the twin indignities of being snubbed by International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander at the FAO Food Summit in Rome this week, and (allegedly) is also being stripped of his honorary knighthood bestowed in 1994 by Queen Elizabeth II as demanded by the Daily Mail.

Today in the House of Lords amidst much mediaeval Pomp and Amateur Dramatics, Lord Mogg of Queen's Park will don the best that Ede and Ravenscroft can make , replete with the skins of dead rodents and flanked by Lord Britten and Lord Bassam be introduced to his fellow Peers.

Everyone is excited to see where the noble and vastly overpaid Lord will perch his ample bottom because he was appointed as a non-political peer - despite a life long membership of the Labour Party.

This is one public ennoblement from which Lord Patel has discreetly absented himself , as Mogg is a greedy and useless fraud. A sparky shining grammar schoolboy he soon sold out to the establishment which has showered him with honours and riches.

Sir John Mogg KCMG (Whom we shall have to get used to addressing as Lord Mogg) is the feeble and totally fucking useless Non-Executive Chairman of OFGEM and is also Chairman of the EU Energy Regulators . A role he squeezes in with the Chairmanship of the Board of Governors at the University of Brighton.

Having reached retirement this year he will continue in his 3 day a week role (£100K a year) as Chairman of OfGEM , started in 2003.

Sir John was Director General of the Internal Market and Services Directorate General (DG MARKT) is one of 37 Directorates General and specialised services which make up the European Commission. Its main role is to said to be to coordinate the Commission’s policy on the European Single Market, which aims to ensure the free movement of people, goods, services and capital within the Union.European Commission Director of Internal Markets .

For running this , Sir John collected a modest £150,000 per annum , plus all sorts of generous and well concealed perks. Come the enlargement of the EC and the re-shuffling of jobs and sharing out the spoils with a mixed crew of Estonians and eastern riff-raff, Sir John had to be moved on, but will have received the same inflation proofed salary / perks etc., for 5 years ( ie a total not unadjacent to £750,00 for simply doing nothing) until retirement age for loss of office and benefits that went with it . He was appointed Chairman of the European Regulators Group for Electricity and Gas (ERGEG), in December 2005. He is also the President of the Council of European Energy Regulators (CEER). .. which no doubt helps to keep the dosh rolling in.

Lord and Lady Mogg also enjoy a modest £2.5 Mn. Edward ian pile overlooking the lush pastures of Queen's Park, in Brighton .

For more Excitement ...Thursday, February 21, 2008 - OfGEM - a case for a clean sweep, bag and baggage, Chairman and Directors....

OfGEM is of course a totally useless and pointless organisation , which if it disappeared in the morning would not be noticed.

For example, today the vibrant and charming Miss Anne McIntosh (Vale of York) Shadow Minister for Food and Rural Affairs, has asked the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, today. " what the costs are estimated to be of connecting to the National Grid proposed windfarms estimated to be necessary to meet Government targets; what estimate he has made of the lengths of overhead pylons required to connect such windfarms to the Grid; and if he will make a statement. "

The building of windfarms has been a total, complete and utter shambles, the levels of subsidy are eye watering , their location has been hindered in time and effort by a myriad local planning committees which has destroyed any sensible national central policy.

The present structure of the National Grid has evolved for historical reasons—to transmit power from large and remote power stations long distances to population centres where it is required. In addition, the lower voltage distribution networks which feed off the grid are designed to provide electricity in one direction only—from the grid to individual homes and businesses.

The growth of renewables envisage in the 2003 Energy White Paper (especially wind farms) required major changes in this structure for two reasons:

1. New sources of renewable power in remote areas (eg large offshore wind farms off the coast of Scotland) will require major infrastructure investment in order to connect them to the grid.

2. The growth of many small renewable power sources within distribution systems (eg isolated wind turbines, biomass, CHP, solar PV and micro-CHP systems) will require investment in local network infrastructure - in particular to enable the more active management of networks as a result of two-way, rather than one-way, flows of electricity.

It was OfGEM's role to oversee the developments needed , to discuss the methods of funding nd charging to pay for this work and to ensure that it was done.

They have done nothing.

Hence the lissom and nubile Miss Anne McIntosh asking further seraching questions about windfarms and the National Grid - more details of her assidous questioning of the endless parade of Energy Ministers here For example here isa fine one which places the staggering cost of just moving the electricity around .... (Figures are of course are way. way out of date)

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate she has made of the additional cost of reinforcing the transmission grid to cope with the addition of wind farm-generated electricity. [152451]Hansard 4th Feb 2004

Jacqui Smith: The Transmission Issues Working Group reported in June 2003 that the overall cost to connect an additional 12 GW ***of renewable energy generation to the GB network would cost £2.1 billion. National Grid Transco, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy are currently revising these costs.

Has anything been done ? Have the wankers at OfGEM pursued these matters ? Have they any plans ? No.

Is it any surprise that there were black outs last week across the country which have, as yet not been explained ? No.

*** Note that 12MW of renewable energy generation actually means 12Mw INSTALLED which given say a 40% utilisation which is high, might mean , say 4MW. According to the British Wind Energy Association today we have 2.5MW INSTALLED in the UK = approx 1 MW output. Today they have received subsidy via Renewable Obligation (RO) of approx £1 Bn. since 2002.