“Government is about choices,” claimed Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband, ahead of the war’s opening salvoes. The “choice” he claims to have made is the transfer of £150 from energy bills to general taxation. Labour’s election promise to “lower bills” has embarrassed the party, though Miliband and his plans remains in place. The accounting-trick policy may, short-term, bring “much needed cost of living support for families”, as Miliband claims. But it means more pressure on other taxpayers, as will the “historic investments in clean, homegrown power we control” that Miliband boasted about at the same time.
But notice that the “control” and “choices” are limited to merely redistributing cost rather than reducing it. “Those on the Right want to outsource our energy security to fossil fuel markets we have no control over,” Miliband claims. So, do the chaotic price signals unleased by the war make his case?...<<<Read More>>>...
