EDF Energy has announced it is putting up gas prices by 22% and electricity prices by 17% for domestic customers. The firm has blamed the increase, which comes into effect on 25 July, on record wholesale energy costs. Energy companies are giving us inflation busting price rises on a regular basis at the moment. This is the second rise for EDF customers this year.
It striking that amid all these commodity rises, it is the consumer that is being targeted for punishment to try and bring inflation down. And it is the Prime Minister that seems to be telling us what to do all the time! Let’s look at some recent occurrences:
- Don’t waste food. This is apparently causing high food costs, nothing to do with rising fuel costs…
- Interest rates and credit crunch. Stops consumers spending and buying houses. So they do. But corporations pass the higher cost of borrowing on to consumers in the form of (you guessed) higher prices…
- Keep wage demands low. Everyone is being told to keep wage demands low, especially in the public sector, meanwhile energy companies are putting up their prices by up to 22%!
Why doesn’t the PM tell these companies to stop putting up their prices? Because he can’t. He can’t do very much, but what he can do is tell us all what to do. So he does. All the time.
When Gordon Brown entered office he read a Mark Twain quote which inferred that he had left all his ‘puritanical’ ways behind him. Through deed rather than words we have now discovered that once a puritanical always a puritanical.
So get used to it. Until he is voted out and replaced by a new government and PM, prepare for more finger wagging from the PM. Oh, and watch out, if that doesnt work, he will just make whatever he’s finger wagging at illegal.
So there.