Make no mistake, the cost of living crisis is a national emergency on the scale of the pandemic. People are facing the worst fall in living standards since the war. Millions of people are already struggling and it’s going to get worse as summer turns to winter.
Remember the urgency of both Scotland’s governments in the pandemic – the previously unthinkable became policy as people did everything to help. They didn’t always get it right but it was plain to see they accepted the urgency of the crisis. Today we stand on the brink of another emergency.
The threat to life isn’t as great but we should be in no doubt that inaction will cost lives. The human suffering and economic damage we are facing is almost unimaginable.
Unlike Covid-19, the crisis here isn’t biological – it is political. The solution won’t be found through the genius of our scientists but in the willingness of our politicians to act.
Earlier this month, BP reported mammoth profits of £6.9billion for a single three-month period. British Gas owner Centrica reported half-year group profits of £1.3billion, five times the amount they had made just a year earlier. Shell, Europe’s largest oil company, reported record profits of nearly £10billion for April to June. Triple on 12 months earlier.
And while energy companies’ profits skyrocket, there are fears people’s energy bills could soon pass the £5000 mark. Let’s not delude ourselves – at that price millions will face impossible choices.
Last week, Gordon Brown set out just some of the ways we could help people now. This week, my friend Keir Starmer will do the same. Just this weekend we have seen his call to make price rises against the law.
Every moment of political delay from the Tories – and from the SNP – makes that crisis worse. So let me give you a real-world example. SNP and Tory delays in backing a windfall tax earlier this year meant taxpayers missed out on £1.9billion which could now be being spent to tackle the crisis.
When Labour first proposed action to help those in need, both the SNP and the Tories failed to back it. That wasn’t without consequence, there were 193 days between Labour proposing this measure and the Tories finally introducing a watered-down version of it.
And that meant more oil giant profits lining shareholders’ pockets while Scots struggle. People across the UK deserve better than two governments trivialising our politics and ignoring the issues that matter while they bicker.
The total lack of ideas and ambition from both our governments has been all too clear. By the end of the year, the price of your energy bill could have gone up by almost 200 per cent. But while countless households are facing the impossible choice between heating and eating, oil and gas giants are raking in billions of pounds of profits and being handed tax breaks.
It’s clear more of the same won’t do. We need a response that matches the scale of this crisis. Both our governments – in Holyrood and in Westminster – have a moral duty to rise to that challenge.
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