Any hints out there was is the combination of the best price and service.

Got grumpy with British Gas giving me some nonsense about gas prices. There is no global gas shortage, and no shortage of supply to the UK. We should not be influenced by Russia as they do not supply the UK (or it's pretty mimimal). It is a poorly working market, linked artificially to the price of oil (which also does not operate according to supply and demand). And worse still as a producer Centrica are making shed loads out of high wholesale prices.

Don't tell Sid that privatisation and capitalism have failed.

My tips...

Put your current usage into http://www.moneysupermarket.com or http://www.uswitch.com and find the best rate. The first site used to offer ?30 for every switch but I think they've stopped that now.

Check http://www.quidco.com to see if your chosen provider is offering cashback for signing up via that site.

Check the Money Saving Expert article on utilities for further advice - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utiliti...lectricity

I changed about 6 months ago to Scottish Power. Then they were the best deal for electricity only.
Probably changed now.

Russia doesn't supply the UK currently, no. But it soon will, in all probability. And besides, it supplies lots of places near the UK that will have to find an alternative source if Russia gets its thermals in a twist. In those circumstances, it's always going to have an influence on price.

But most of the rest of what you say is true.

The reason we don't need Russian gas is that Norway has heaps and we have shared infrastructure with them. The problem was that our system was set up to export when we lived in our North Sea bubble and were happy to sell much of our national asset. The system has now been reversed with extra pipelines from Norway and a better connection to the continent to give flexibility. Those naughty oligarchs do of course influence world prices that we have to pay and that make Centrica rich. At the risk of being provocative Thatcher's move from a national energy policy to letting the market decide has now seriously backfired, including of course her hatred of coal mines, although of course one could argue that was not the cleanest way of providing energy.