Go on then. Let me put a contrary view. Not quite sure why people are moaning. Shell are not a Social Service, they are a private sector company. Their responsibilities are to their shareholders to maximise profits. They have been wildly successful in that endeavour. And one of the principal reasons is that the model they operate under is incredibly popular with the English electorate and (nearly) every major British political party.
Also, why do we pay the same price for energy produced from wind as that produced from gas when it's much cheaper to produce from wind?
Meanwhile, the cost of gas and electricity combined for my 84 year old Nanna’s single occupied, (well, her and a cat…) one bedroom bungalow, just for the month of January, was £300. Electricity made up only £70 of that. £230 for a months worth of gas. And she has an electric shower, so there’s barely any hot water in there. Purely heating. And she tried to use the heating sparingly where she could. She gets some disability money as well as her pension, and a bit of widow’s pension from Donny council as my grandad was a painter for them for decades. But she still has more going out monthly than coming in at the moment. Thankfully my grandad left her with a bit, they were never rich but he invested in some sensible shares over the years. So she should have more than enough to live as warm she wants for the years she has left. All those years of graft, sensible savings and investments. And it’s being used to meet a necessary basic need as her old aged pension, PIP and widow’s pension combined can’t pay the bills and do a basic weekly shop. She even sold the house and downgraded to a much smaller place when he passed away. I dread to think what the bills would have been like in the old house, an old draughty three bed semi with big bay windows, a ridiculously inefficient back boiler and an immersion heater to top up the hot water. That £300 would have been about double I reckon. The shares have all been cashed in and she’s sitting on savings. And using them to live a pretty basic existence. My mum and her siblings will just have to make do with the bungalow for their inheritance!!! My nanna is lucky too when you think about it. How many other 80 somethings have no PIP, no private pension or widow’s pension, and have only the old aged pension to live on? Possibly not owning their own home either? How the frig are they meant to cope? My mam took her for some bits from aldi the other day, she barely quarter filled a small trolley with pretty basic stuff and still spent £60 nearly. She’s ok. Many, many others aren’t. It isn’t right. I don’t mind companies making profit. They are businesses. But it shouldn’t be an obscene amount when people are quite literally dying. And they should be paying tax. Windfall tax ideally. A fair and normal amount of corp and capital gains, and no vat offsets, would be a start though.
I can only go with what the usual pattern is and the new boundaries that the tories are setting up that are design to bake in a win in England for them. But you may be right people are sick of the lies and corruption. Still my view that a hung Parliament isn’t out of the question and that any outright win for Labour is difficult.
