Fuel Poverty - Nationalise UK Gas & Electricity Companies

October 2008-10-21

Fuel Poverty - Nationalise UK Gas & Electricity Companies - Governments must change course

Post your comments about how you’re coping with the higher fuel bills / energy bills but importantly write letters to your MP’s calling on the idea of Nationalising the Gas & Electricity Companies within the UK in the best interest of all the people. To do this we must totally pull out of Europe because EU Rules prevent Nationalisation within Member States, because of the Banking crisis the rules have been suspended to allow the Nationalisation of our Banks, if they can do this then they must Nationalise UK Gas & Electricity on a permanent basis.

It seems criminal to me that people are being forced to go without heating & lighting as this UK Government cares more about helping bankers than ordinary folk. How come this government can find the money to help capitalist criminals but can’t find the money to Nationalise Gas & Electricity Companies who force ordinary people to live in fuel poverty – while paying massive bonuses/dividends to shareholders. “Tell Sid we must nationalise”

Peter Mandelson of New Labour along with the Tories talk only about helping businesses as the economy continues the downward spiral, but what about we’ the people & how we have to live in 2008 !!

As you’re reading this – think about the pensioner who becomes so weak & so cold they dare not move out of their chair! The year, 2008 marked 100th birthday of the state pension but after 100 years, 1 in 4 pensioners still live below the poverty line. Its worth pointing out that millions of workers will rely on the state pension when they retire. The state pension must be raised above the poverty line for all & the restoration of the link with earnings – the British Labour Government announced its intention to restore the link, eleven years on, it has still not done so.

Think of the mum who pulls her hair out in despair, had their benefits slashed (euphemistically called sanctioned) she tries to juggle feeding her kids or keeping them warm! Claimants are going to be suffering in poverty & prevented from claiming benefits that are rightfully theirs. 1 in 3 children live in families below the poverty line. As a result millions of children go without basic necessities such as adequate clothing, a healthy diet or a warm home. This winter looks dire, as folks find it near impossible to make ends meet.

Think of the single guy who falls into serious depression, walks the streets in hope of a finding a job trying to keep busy but governments & the wider media blames him for his unemployment – can’t afford to buy food only reduced items or going without, then finding he can’t cook it because he’s on a Token Meter for his gas & electricity. Thinks’ he be better of dead, tries everything & anything to escape the harsh world of living in a tenement flat.

This is Britain in 2008 & it’s going to get much worse but we are the forgotten victims. The price of bread, milk and eggs has shot up by nearly 25 per cent, while gas and electricity bills are now higher than ever before.

Looking at Scotland its clear to me that issues dominating Scotland's politics today is the Scottish Parliament's lack of powers: its inability to deal with crises of housing, unemployment, energy, transport & manufacturing, its continuing subordination to external neo-liberal policies, its lack of finance & constant pressure on public sector services, jobs & wages.

It’s an outrage that this Labour Government can manage to find – more than a total of Seven Hundred Billion Pounds to bail out City Spivs in the London Stock Markets. The Scottish capitalist within our banking sector have been bailed out by nationalising some of Scotland’s Banks. The money is there to Nationalise the Gas & Electricity Companies in the UK its immoral for these companies to be making billions of pounds in profits at the same time as our pensioners, single mums & the unemployed among others who are vulnerable in our society, suffer in the cold. At the same time folks have to juggle with higher bills some can’t afford to eat or use heating.

To tackle fuel poverty within Scotland alone, powers need to be transferred from Whitehall (UK Parliament) to the Scottish Parliament - those extra powers must be seized.” I urged you to write to both MP’s in London & MSP in Scotland’s Parliament calling for powers to act on issues like fuel poverty. Scotland’s Parliament needs the powers to act in the best interest of its people

Most people in Britain care little about personalities but care more about the vision of that government – this government has used deception to hold us down for to long. “Tell Sid we must nationalise”

On a separate Note the UK’s “Government Welfare Green Paper” means unprecedented attacks on welfare delivery & the welfare state as we know it – demand to know from your Member of Parliament / Member Scottish Parliament / Welsh & North Ireland - Assembly Member, where they stand on the subject.

“Lets us at last realise our true power & win the battle of ideas”.