The chief executive of BP is right - owning shares in an oil company right now is like having a money-making machine.
The only trouble is that the people minting the notes are the consumers sitting in their homes, fearing to turn the heating on.
A worldwide squeeze on energy supplies has pushed the price of gas prices up to unprecedented levels. Economics and politics have conspired to provide massive profits for companies like BP.
For every second in the final quarter of last year the company made £378 in profit. That truly is a licence to print money.
At the same time, seven out of ten Scots are rationing their energy use, even before a bombshell energy price rise arrives in April when bills will soar by £700.
The sellotape solution offered by the Tories, a £200 discount to be repaid over five years, just piles up the debt for consumers. The £290million available to the Scottish Government to target help has been partly promised already to cash-starved councils.
Cutting VAT on fuel bills would work fine but a one-off windfall tax on the windfall profits of the energy giants would work better still.
The argument that this would harm investment in the North Sea is nonsense. The energy firms were not expecting such huge dividends and their investments, already incentivised by government tax breaks, are planned years in advance.
With these eye-watering profits, it cannot be right that shareholders in big energy companies are rolling in cash while people at home are too scared to turn up their radiators.
Sect of shame
Today's Daily Record exposes hateful messages and online memes promoted by an extremist Christian group in Scotland.
Their dangerous and potentially deadly messages are being spread on Facebook pages and viewed many thousands of times. As well as unsubstantiated claims about the corona vaccine, the group - known as Christadelphian Ecclesia – also spread homophobic abuse.
But their words seem to have very little to do with the Christian message of tolerance or love for your neighbour.
They do not represent views held by any mainstream Christian denominations, who will no doubt be horrified at what they see today.
You only have to look at the United States to see where such groups want to take us with extremist “churches” stirring up hatred against minorities and given a home to far-right political views.
It is a disgrace that a group such as this has charitable status here in Scotland - and it is right that they are being looked at by the charity regulator.
Any group that peddles dangerous, hateful messages like those we highlight today must be called out.
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