TODAY households across Scotland will be dreading the email or letter from their energy company.
As the price cap is lifted, thousands of Scots – already on the breadline – will be hit with a massive hike in their bills. The energy price cap rise will mean the average annual cost of heating a home will increase by 27 per cent.
More than 600,000 households will be classed as being in extreme fuel poverty. The cost of food, rising inflation and the prospect of interest rate hikes are also putting huge strain on budgets.
But this bills increase will be the final straw for some, pushing them into a choice between eating and heating. The causes of this crisis are not straightforward. There’s no doubt Putin’s war in Ukraine is partly to blame.
But the fact remains that successive Tory governments have simply failed to get to grips with energy policy. Prime ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major sold off the country’s publicly owned energy suppliers.
They promised an era of cheap energy as the big electricity and gas companies competed with each other for custom. Those promises are now exposed for the sham they always were.
The era of privatisation has seen bills increase year on year. To make matters worse, we now have a Westminster Government intent on shooting itself in the foot, trashing the country’s economy to dish out tax breaks to the super-rich.
They have no clue how to fix the broken energy market because they are wedded to a right-wing ideology that puts profit before people. Liz Truss and her dismal Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng have made a bad situation even worse.
The sad fact is our energy crisis will never be fixed while they stay in office.
Thanks, Kenny
SCOTLAND rugby legend Kenny Logan speaks frankly and openly in today’s Record of the moment he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
His story is worth reading for all men of a certain age. In fact, we hope it will save lives.
Kenny is urging men to make sure they get tested for prostate cancer – which can lurk unnoticed for years. In fact, it was only when his wife Gabby started a podcast on her own health that she urged him to go for a check-up.
It was then he discovered he was in the early stages of the illness and, thankfully, it was caught quickly. With advances in modern science, it is possible to live a healthy life while managing prostate cancer – and in some cases it can be cured entirely.
But it has to be caught early and Kenny deserves great credit for urging others to get checked. He’s served his country well on the rugby pitch. Now he’s doing an even greater service in raising awareness of this silent killer.
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