Toolmaker, I thought.
It seems pretty reasonable that he'd leave the plans and assessment to actual economist people.
I fully expect the next Conservative asked about Johnson's lack of effort will refer to Starmer going on holiday.
I can only presume that the actual economist/realistic people were also on holiday when this “stick your fingers in your ears, sing La-La-La, and pretend it’ll all ok / will go away” policy was dreamt up. The answer for our current crisis is for the political parties to pledge to outspend each other eh? A round of applause please for the hard of thinking who want to lead us.
There is a single cause to this cost of living problem - energy. There is a single cause to energy - supply and demand - specifically a lack of refining capacity. We are where we are.
The hard truth is cheap energy is unlikely to be back ever/any time soon and
we have to change - so first thing to accept is; if you can’t afford to use the energy, then don’t. Harsh? Maybe, but it’s also true. Stop using your tumble dryer, reduce the temp on washing machine cycles, does it really need washing?/wear clothes an extra day, stop using your dishwasher, turn off lights, don’t leave things on standby from TV to printer to games consoles to microwave, pack your fridge / freezer more intelligently, etc etc. The average house can save a good 40% doing those relatively simple things. You save money by using less and remove pressure from the demand side.
We can’t pretend that a government spending £29bn capping energy bills for the next 6 months is going to make the problem go away. These bills we be just as high as the supply/demand issues remains or are potentially worse. Only we can make these problems go away - by we I mean everyone in the developed world. We need to stop using as much energy. If the government steps in and picks up the tab then we won’t change or even think about our energy use - we will carry on being as wasteful as ever.
Starmer is saying we don’t need to change - we just need someone else to pay. He’s not alone either, the greens - who should be witnessing their greatest ever relevance - are just as bad if not worse because they are supposed to be the flag bearer for Mother Earth.
Moreover by saving energy we are not only saving ourselves money but we are also indirectly helping those in poorer countries as demand drops reducing the prices for
everyone. If we want to go back to being wasteful in years to come I’ve got a few ideas on that but meh, let’s do something good for the planet instead.