As Britain plunges more and more into an energy poverty abyss, no-one dares mention the gigantic, green elephant in the room.
This is not just another inconvenient rise in the cost of living: this is literally life and death stuff. Already, Britain’s own energy regulator admits, thousands of poor people, mostly elderly, die every winter because they cannot afford heating.
It’s getting worse.
Consumer champion Martin Lewis has warned people will die as they are forced to choose either heating or eating when energy bills rocket.
He added Britain faces an “absolute poverty crisis” and called for action to shield millions from soaring costs.
The Money Saving Expert said a “substantial” hike in funds was needed to help those most severely hit by the prices surge.
He told the BBC : “We are going to have to put money into the system or we are going to have an absolute poverty crisis, with people being unable to eat or dying because of the cold.”
Now, why would this be? Don’t ask, because no one will admit it.
Meanwhile, the sheer scale of the problem gets more and more staggering.
Last week it was predicted the limit for 11 million on standard or default tariffs would leap by 50% – 10 times the rate of inflation.
Costs might rise from £1,277 to £1,925 from April 1, an extra £648 a year. Consultants Cornwall Insight said the average bills could surge beyond £2,000 next winter.
A cap for four million with prepayment meters, often among the poorest, is also set to soar […]
Think-tank the Resolution Foundation predicted households who will find energy unaffordable will treble to 6.3 million.
So, why are prices going crazy? The British government is trying to blame soaring gas prices — which only begs the question of why gas is so in demand and in short supply.
But no one wants to talk about that — although a teensy hint can be gleaned from Germany’s response.
While Sunak, below, snoozes, in Germany the government has cut a surcharge on bills used to support renewable energy schemes.
Here, Labour wants a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas producers, to fund a £200 cut in the average home energy bill.
Fossil fuel companies would have to contribute £1.2billion to help fund the plans, via a year-long increase to their corporation tax of 10%.
So, governments supporting “renewable” energy scams schemes and slugging fossil fuel companies. The picture is getting clearer.
The simple fact is that, everywhere in the world which has embraced “renewables” on any significant scale, soaring electricity prices and destabilised grids have followed. Germany, which has boasted about its Energiewende, or “energy turnaround”, including completely shutting down its nuclear industry, tops the list. Denmark, where wind power accounts for more than half its supply, is second.
Hiding in the list because it is only a single state of Australia, South Australia’s electricity prices are higher than even Germany or Denmark. Unsurprisingly, the state relies entirely on “renewables” (except when they inevitably collapse and it has to buy electricity off other states).
But no one in Britain apparently wants to talk about that. Instead of admitting that they’ve made a catastrophic mistake, they’re just doing what green grifters always do: putting their hands out for more of other peoples’ money.
Katie Schmuecker, of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which carried out the analysis, called on the Government to stop the rising cost of living from knocking people off their feet.
She added: “The alarm is sounding and the case for targeted support to help people on the lowest incomes couldn’t be clearer.”
The foundation has also found about 1.8 million children are growing up in very deep poverty, a rise of 500,000 between 2011/12 and 2019/20.
Ms Schmuecker added: “No childhood should be defined by a daily struggle to afford the basics.
“The fact that more children are in poverty and sinking deeper into poverty should shame us all.”
The Mirror
Well, yes, it should. “How dare you,” to turn a phrase.
Someone is indeed stealing the future, the hopes and the dreams of too many British children — and it’s not the fossil fuel companies.
