The Pandemic and the War on Ukraine are being blamed for the rise in Energy and food prices in the UK, but could these just be scapegoats, when the real, longer term cause is 4 decades of neoliberalism.....?
The Tories have been selling off state assets since the 1980s, and gradually shifted us from nationalised energy supplies to a free-market system, giving people no choice but to choose between the best energy prices on the global market, fed through various supply companies.
Yes there have been measures to ease the burden of sudden shifts in the price of energy, such as the 12 month energy cap, but that was just to give people time to adapt - and now that's up, we see the full-effect of Britain being laid bare to a free-market economy of oil and gas - very rapid price increases which a fifth of households just cannot cope with.
On top of subjecting people to the global free market system, government policies have also retarded Britain's shift into renewables - the tories scrapped subsidies for solar panels and house insulation almost a decade ago now, both of which would have helped soften the blow by reducing our dependence on the global free market.
Isn't this politically engineered energy crisis simply neoliberalism running its course?
You open up the country, liberalise its energy supply, and when a sudden spike occurs, it screws the bottom fifth HARD, and the middle a little, while those at the top hardly feel the increase at all...
I think Kier Starmer needs to be making more of the 'uncaring tories' - there's definitely a link between their partying during Lockdown breaking the rules and their policy considerations viz the ordinary working household - the link is that both show they don't give a toss about ordinary people.
Something born out by their lame response to helping people through the cost of living crisis and their using Covid and the war as scapegoats.....
I suppose one upside is that the British are never happier that when they've got something to complain about, and there's plenty ATM, and with no end for the foreseeable future!
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I'm not against private enterprise, but there's a case for nationalising some essentials to keep it under control. The Tories seem intent on making their friends as rich as possible. CEO wages are going through the roof. They earn 100s of times what their employees get. I don't think Labour have any intention of going full socialism, but I would hope they could be more caring about regular people instead of the current treatment of them as cattle. We seem to be going back to the old days of serfdom with the lords in their castles living it up.
Will voters do anything about it?
It's the thing about rolling back the state - it just means the poorest sections of society suffer harder, and year on year the proportion who feel the pinch grows - as in from the bottom 15% to the bottom 25% now. At least!
It tends to be the better off who want a smaller state. It's a tricky balance, but most countries have a mix of free market and socialism.
The problem as you rightly state is Labour and the Tories are no better than each other. This all needs a good shake up as what happened to looking after the people putting them first.
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I think Policy making is all wrong - the wrong kind of regulation that just fails to empower people!
The carbon tax just increased in Canada. The trend to promise carbon-free seems universal especially in the west.
There was a fuel crisis in the early '70s and mid-'00s.
Economies work in cycles. Doubt it's neoliberalism.
I don't suppose any of your problems with the price of energy has to do with restricting the exploration and development of fossil fuels?
Well that is a factor, no doubt!