FOR those who’ve been living in a cave for the last year (I wouldn’t blame you if you had), energy bills are going up next month.
Notwithstanding the levies for green energy, which have been part of our bills for the last few years, this hike has been blamed on a shortage of oil and gas. Whatever the reason, the poor and the vulnerable amongst us will be making a hard decision come next winter on how to divide their paltry income so they can stay warm. The government has offered help, of sorts, for those who will suffer, the taxpayer forking out £350 per struggling household, which will do little to alleviate this rise in bills.
Not only will people see an increase on their energy bills but many places across the country will see their council tax rise by up to 3 per cent as well as national insurance payments increasing as much as 13 per cent depending on earnings.
Petrol prices have already gone up and with events playing out in Russia and Ukraine many people are already getting angsty about what the reciprocal sanctions will do to fuel costs, and drivers are already queueing at petrol stations.
It seems that some mobile and broadband charges will also be going up, with three phone providers announcing that a 9.3 per cent rise later in the year.
All in all, the taxpayer is really being screwed this year, forced to pay for bad policy decisions by our leaders, mainly the lockdowns they inflicted on this country. So it will not surprise you that despite these rising costs, MPs will be seeing their pay rise, in the same month the taxpayers are hit, by £2,200 a year.
I imagine MPs such as Sir Peter Bottomley, who believe MPs don’t get enough money as it is, will be elated at their 2.7 per cent rise in salary but I doubt if Mr and Mrs Joe Public will. The taxpayer will be squeezed more than ever this year while their representatives, who caused this crisis, will get to live well off the sweat and the toil of their compliant drudges. Personally, I’d like to see all MPs donate their pay rise to those who will struggle to meet heating bills this year but the chances of that happening are as likely as the government finding a conservative backbone and the opposition siding with the working class again.
While you suffer, they prosper. That seems to be the message, and none of our representatives is the slightest bit ashamed of it. While our parliamentarians double down on Net Zero and consistently throw money at the NHS, giving it greater scope to employ diversity, gender and climate change officers, while they open our borders to the world and his wife, you, the insignificant prole, will be required by your state to continue reaching into pockets that are getting more strained each time.
You will own nothing and be happy, they say. No. They will own everything and you will be deeply unhappy.
