Union leader Gary Smith of the GMB has predicted the winter fuel crisis will be like a poll tax moment for a new prime minister. The hated poll tax, and a widespread campaign of non-payment, was one of the factors that did for Margaret Thatcher.
Her self-appointed heir Liz Truss, the likely winner of the Tory leadership contest, would do well to note Smith’s parallels between what could happen in the winter of 2022 and what happened in November 1990. The cost-of-living crisis was long predicted and foreshadowed by 10 long years of Tory austerity.
A war in Europe has supercharged the situation and proved that the much-vaunted market forces of privatisation offer no competitive edge when it comes to providing for the poorest in society. The war will be costly, the winter will be hard, but no responsible government will put the burden on those least able to bear it.
