Former Shell Economist Truss Gifts Energy Firms With Billions While Your Energy Bill Doubles
They are calling this the “biggest state intervention since WWII”, but who is the intervention actually for?
The government has realised just how many people won’t be able to pay their utility bills this winter, and Liz Truss’s very first act as Prime Minister was to make sure the huge energy firms - set to make £170 billion in unexpected profits over the next 2 years - still get their money.
Sure, there will be an element of contract renegotiation, but a vast majority of the bill, likely to run into hundreds of billions, will be put on the government books and essentially removed from the public purse.
Liz Truss and her band of right-wing headbangers, backed up by The Mail, will tell you that they are “protecting you” - if you buy into this theory then you’ll no doubt agree that the Tories are merely attempting to protect the population from the effects of its own neoliberal ideology?
Be in no doubt, this protection is designed to secure the profits of the energy firms, short and long term.
The ‘saving’ received by the customer is quietly put on the never-never, and the Wonga Tories have you bent over another barrel for years to come.
Can you see how it works now? They are supposed to be our servants, but it is us that is eternally on our knees, slavishly waiting for our Tory masters to brush a few fucking crumbs off the table. Despicable bastards.
The only reason we are paying market prices for oil and gas is because we have legislated to pay market prices.
As you’ll already know, ex-Lib Dem, ex-Remainer, ex-Republican Truss worked for Shell for several years, but I’m sure that had absolutely nothing to do with her plan to expand North Sea gas and oil, or ruling out a windfall tax on their obscene excess profits.
We shouldn’t also read anything into the fact the biggest donation to Liz Truss’s leadership campaign was from the wife of a former BP executive, right?
Absolutely nothing to see here, particularly if you walk around blinkered to reality, blissfully unaware of the blatant corruption that is synonymous with Conservative governments, whoever their leader may be.
There is so much wrong with Truss’s plan it’s hard to know where to go, once you’ve realised the Tories latest corporate welfare will end up costing 10, 20, or even 50 times what it would cost to return key utilities - ESSENTIAL services - into public ownership.
There’s absolutely no shame in admitting Jeremy Corbyn was right. The shame is exclusively reserved for those who inflicted this cost of greed crisis upon us.
I followed the new Prime Minister’s energy crisis statement closely. Truss only had this one chance to get it right, to demonstrate to the electorate that she understands the extreme pressures that millions of households are facing.
By the end of her statement it felt like Liz Truss had just denied the Tories any realistic chance of keeping their majority at the next general election, such was the overall inadequacy of her “pro-business, pro-growth” speech.
What degree of comfort will be felt by a Universal Credit claimant being told they will need to spend ¾ of their entire incomings on energy alone?
This is before you consider their need to feed and clothe themselves and their families, pay for their water supply, fuel - if they can afford to run a car - the money coming in simply isn’t anywhere near sufficient to cover the money that is needed to go out.
This is a disaster, a fucking catastrophe happening in real time, and the feeling of despair and hopelessness is only worsened by the pitifully feeble response from the British government.
Liz Truss will be an absolute disaster for Britain. We said the same about Boris Johnson and they told us that we were “naysayers”, “doom mongers”, and unpatriotic for not “believing in Britain”.
Just out of curiosity, how does one go about believing in Britain when the British people have a lust for using their vote as a tool to bludgeon society with?
I have as much faith in Liz Truss (multiple adulterer) as I did in Boris Johnson (multiple adulterer) - which is none whatsoever.
And I have absolutely no hesitation in asking exactly how much influence do the big energy firms have at the very top of government?
Let’s be straight, Boris Johnson’s government was undoubtedly the most corrupt British government in living memory, and Liz Truss was at the heart of that fucking rancid, criminal government throughout.
Are we really just going to roll over and accept another bent right-wing government under the stewardship of an impossibly awful Liz Truss?
The correct answer is no, not a fucking chance.
Let us be unmistakably clear. The government has just increased your energy bill by more than £500. They haven't saved you a single penny.
Once again the Tories have failed to target the assistance to those that need it the most, instead choosing to apply the fixed price cap to even the very highest earners.
If you spend more than 10% of your disposable income on your energy bills you are considered to be in fuel poverty, so what are you considered to be in if you are a Universal Credit claimant handing over three quarters of your income to energy suppliers?
Deeply in the shit, I would suggest.
Mick Lynch is absolutely right when he said:
“Energy prices have to come down - and to do that we need people on the streets. We can’t wait for politicians.”
The Tory government has made it abundantly clear whose side they are on. Surprise surprise, it’s not yours, unless you stand to benefit from the planned cut to corporation tax, or you’re the CEO of a company that the Prime Minister used to work for, then you’re in with a shout.
We find ourselves with a new Prime Minister and a new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Apparently they’ve worked very closely in the past too.
But isn’t it concerning that they both believe that British workers are amongst the worst idlers in the world?
What about the new look Cabinet? How the fuck did Mark Francois end up becoming the Secretary of State for Health following their tumultuous time in charge of the Department for Willful Persecution?
The anxiety and uncertainty for millions of families looks set to continue where it left off under the wretched leadership of Boris Johnson.
Prime Minister Truss had a golden opportunity to end that anxiety and uncertainty, but she failed miserably.
Even when Truss stood behind the lecturn outside the door of 10 Downing Street to pay a brief tribute to Queen Elizabeth it felt like she was a returning officer reading out the results at a local by-election count.
This will be a government of inaction, division, and ineptitude. It will be defined by the action it takes, or lack of, to ease the cost of greed crisis over the coming months for the millions of poor and working class families, and the early signs are saying things will get a whole lot worse until they get better.
Thanks for reading,
Rachael
Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts, if you want to chip in towards improving my ongoing campaign, and it would cause you *no hardship*, you can do so here:
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