When I re-negotiate my broadband, upgrade my mobile phone or switch energy supplier to grab a lower price, like most fellow local residents, I take this freedom for granted.
Economic freedom is a result of the bitter political battles of the 1980s, where the central planners of the left fought the free market liberalisers of the right. Freedom won, but this week, for the first time in decades, that freedom was challenged.
Ed Miliband announced that a Labour Government would impose government price controls on the energy market in order to freeze household bills, a freeze that would last until 2017.
There is no doubt that energy prices have risen for all of us. This is primarily because around half of the cost of your bill is the physical cost of buying the energy, predominantly gas from Norway. After the nuclear disaster in Japan, Japan abandoned its nuclear programme and went to Norway with a blank cheque in order to plug the gap. This drove up prices and therefore drove up UK bills.
This wholesale cost of energy is completely out of the Government’s hands. Price controls are meaningless in a global market. It is little more that a direct subsidy, taxes being used to subsidise consumers. We would pay less for our energy, but more in our taxes. It is nothing more than a hollow political gesture from a man wanting a return to the 70’s.
If Ed Miliband was serious about reducing the costs for consumers, he would not have stung them with the green taxes he introduced as Energy Secretary that make up a staggering 10% of your bill.
If he was serious at looking at the long term energy problem, he would be encouraging companies to invest in renewable generation and more efficient infrastructure in order to reduce our dependence on costly imports. Stinging companies with price caps will halt all this vital investment. If he was serious at reducing bills long term, he would, as Energy Secretary, have built new power stations, meaning that we would not have to buy so much energy from abroad.
If he was serious about helping families, he would not be ordering his MPs to vote against our plans to force energy companies to automatically put customers on the lowest possible tariff and making it easier for people to compare costs and switch.
We learned in the 1980s when economic liberalisation won the argument that it is consumers who hold the power, not governments. Ed Miliband would do well to remember that .
Finally, well done to STFC for their great effort against Chelsea at a packed County Groun. It was always going to be a tough match and whilst there was no cup upset, we showed enough to promise for a good season.
