Where the hell is the Government as the energy cataclysm engulfs Britain? It’s near silence is a disgrace
Power vacuum
WHERE the hell is the Government as the energy cataclysm engulfs Britain? It's near silence is a disgrace.
Boris Johnson has abandoned ship. Neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak yet has the elected authority to make decisions or reassure the public.
Their long leadership contest has created a disastrous vacuum at the worst time.
Ofgem’s colossal new price cap has millions terrified about destitution and small firms facing bankruptcy.
Truss is likely to be PM on September 5.
She must grasp from Day One the scale of a crisis as grave as Covid and potentially more destructive economically.
She must put aside traditional Tory ideology.
She must accept that the poorest need a huge and urgent bailout.
She must be honest that others, higher earners and rich savers, cannot be helped without nationally ruinous cost.
She must impose swingeing further windfall taxes on war-profiteering oil giants — and brook no argument.
She must avoid total catastrophe.
We are not yet convinced she gets it.
As monthly bills triple, her promise to axe green levies will barely make a dent.
Tax cuts, while welcome, will not help the poorest.
Restarting fracking, also vital, provides no immediate hope.
If and when she addresses the nation as PM she must say this: That this energy crisis, triggered by Putin and Covid, is a national and global emergency requiring a response akin to a war effort.
That she will ensure no one goes without light and heat this winter, or faces hunger due to monstrous energy bills.
That she will do what it takes to help firms. That we ALL need to cut energy.
It is a vast challenge for a new PM.
If that’s Liz, she had better be ready.
Years of folly
POLITICIANS who opposed new nuclear power but now shed crocodile tears over bills are utterly contemptible.
So are eco warriors who block fracking, oppose North Sea gas and vandalise petrol stations.
We hope this crisis sobers these clowns up.
We will need fossil fuels for decades before renewables can reliably power the country.
Labour and the Lib Dems have shameful records.
But the Tories have been in sole charge for seven years.
Their lethargy and complacency on energy has left us horribly exposed.
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Mac the knife
WE lost count of the insults President Macron lobbed at Brexit Britain.
Then he stole our Covid jabs. And spitefully shut his border to our truckers.
Is he our friend or foe? Liz Truss says “the jury’s out” . . . and fair enough. She was talking about him, not France.
EU fans went berserk. Except Macron then said Britain was an ally, in spite of our leaders. That’s the same distinction.
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Did Remainers trash him too? No.
EU leaders are always right, remember?