Ouch! Stop, it's Hurting
July 7, 2008 12:00 PM
Oil prices have doubled in a year on the international markets. Gas is going up steeply, and even unfashionable coal costs three times what it did in 2002. Although it doesn't feel like it, consumers in Britain haven't had the worst of it yet. That's because it takes awhile for the wholesale price at international level to feed through to our household bills. But it certainly will do.
Already it is hitting Stockport families - especially those on low incomes, who have to spend a bigger share of their money on heating than those who are better off. Across the country the number living in 'fuel poverty' - simply unable to pay to keep warm - has risen quickly. By this coming autumn there will be hundreds more Stockport pensioners and lone parents struggling to pay for heating. Spending the winter in a cold home is life threatening for young and old alike.
I've been working with the 'Warm Homes' group of MPs from all parties in Parliament to get the Government to take action. For years they have relied on low energy prices to keep people warm when they should have been investing in energy saving. More than half the fuel we burn to keep our homes warm is wasted - pure carbon footprint, with no benefit to the families paying the bills. Now energy prices are shooting upwards Labour's complacency has been found out.
Gordon Brown says it is a world-wide problem. Not in Sweden it isn't, where homes are all insulated to a standard that hardly requires any heating at all, even in their severe winters. Not in Germany it isn't, where they build more renewable energy generation each year than Britain has managed in the whole of the last decade. Of course we cannot control international prices, but we could be ready for them - with our homes properly insulated, and with much more power coming from renewables. I've been banging on about that in Parliament for a long time, and even steered an Act onto the Statute Book aimed at making it all easier to do. Sadly, so far Gordon has refused to use it.
We could have had some decent public transport by now, as well, so we could leave our cars at home more often, and make that tank full of fuel last longer. And buying cars with high miles-per-gallon, too.
If we'd done all that FIRST, it wouldn't be hurting so much NOW. Not to mention, we'd have already made a proper start on slowing down climate change. As it is, Labour have hung back at every turn - usually in cahoots with the Tories. Their short-sighted wish to let business rip and the market decide has brought the worst of all worlds. Higher prices and no good way of ducking them. Bigger carbon emissions, taking years more to put right.
Please move over, guys, and the let the Liberal Democrats get the job done properly.
End
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