Theresa May must act now after slamming Big Six energy firms greedy antics
Fatcat bosses choose to cash in on vulnerable customers rather than putting everyone on the same tariff and still make a profit
Sickening fix
FOR years politicians have griped about the sickening greed of the Big Six energy firms and done nothing.
We commend Theresa May for singling out their avarice in her speech on Wednesday. But she must now act.
Today we detail how these giants rip off Brits by £6billion a year. The Competition and Markets Authority was meant to reel them in. It failed dismally.
Everything is stacked in the suppliers’ favour, even supposedly independent price comparison websites.
When wholesale costs rise, the Big Six jack prices up immediately. When costs fall, they cut our bills at glacial speed.
Switching suppliers online can save a packet — but it is still too complex. And those without web access, OAPs among them, stay stuck on the highest tariffs.
The Six could put all customers on lower tariffs and still turn a profit. Their fatcat bosses choose to profiteer instead.
And thus Centrica boss Iain Conn sits in his mansion on £3million a year made from over-charging old folk to heat their homes.
It is repugnant: As the PM says, the free market gone wrong.
She must ensure these firms put profits second to providing this essential service at the cheapest cost.
Shifting ALL customers automatically to their lowest tariffs would be a good start.
Enough is enough.
Step on the gas
IT is fantastic the Government has finally approved fracking, over-ruling a council’s spineless surrender to eco propagandists.
Drilling firm Cuadrilla now has the chance to prove that extracting shale gas is safe, could power Britain cheaply for a generation and create thousands of jobs in areas desperate for them.
The GMB union says only “headbangers” believe wind and solar can power Britain and for once we agree with them.
It is a win-win, unless you believe the internet conspiracies cherry-picked by the green lobby, their lies now laid bare by the Advertising Standards Authority.
We hope the new wells turn round public opinion — and start making Britain more self-sufficient for power.
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Shami shame
RARELY do political figures trash their own upstanding reputations as fast and as comprehensively as Shami Chakrabarti.
Once the apparently principled head of Liberty, she began her descent with a report whitewashing blatant anti-semitism within Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour.
By a remarkable coincidence she was instantly awarded a Labour peerage. Now she’s Shadow Attorney General.
We’re not sure which compromises her most: The shameless careerism . . .
Or the fact this supposedly intelligent woman now intends to argue that the shambling numbskull she calls leader would make a fine Prime Minister.