Jayne Dowle: Major’s icy blast for complacent coalition over energy scandal

SIR John Major has put into words exactly what we are all thinking. It is simply unacceptable, he says, that people will be forced to choose between heating and eating this winter.

He urges his own Conservative party to find, “a heart and a social conscience”. And to really ram his point home, he tells the Chancellor that he must impose a multi-million pound emergency tax upon energy firms to help those in the direst fuel poverty.

No pressure there then for George Osborne when he announces his Autumn Statement on December 4.

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Ouch. This side swipe at the coalition Government must hurt. It comes just days after David Cameron’s advice to wrap up warm with an extra jumper instead of turning up the radiators.

The Prime Minister’s handy hint to householders was at best woolly-headed, at worst patronising and out-of-touch. We’ve endured years of record energy price rises. Does he not think we practise this already?

If only he could see me working at home on a cold December day, he would understand that there are only so many layers one woman can wear without losing the use of her arms.

My record is seven; thermal vest, T-shirt, jumper, cardigan, furry gilet, fleece and in extremis, coat and hat.

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To save money, I refuse to switch the heating on until the children come in from school. I look like a cross between a cave woman and an extra in Mad Max. I bet Samantha Cameron doesn’t.

It also knocks the recent advice from British Gas – to use less gas and electricity – straight back into the century it belongs in. Sir John’s intervention could not have come at a more apposite time. With sickening predictability, The “Big Six” energy companies are racing each other to hike up their prices just in time for winter.

British Gas, npower and Scottish & Southern Energy have already announced that bills will go up, by more than 10 per cent in the case of British Gas.

This is nothing short of audacious; the price of gas itself isn’t climbing half as high as consumer-borne increases suggest, the energy companies are raking in record profits, and their directors are still claiming their inflation-busting pay rises.

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And who bears the burden? Us, of course. Dual fuel energy bills for gas and electricity have soared from £1,100 three years ago to around £1,465 now, according to the consumer website MoneySupermarket.com.

That’s more than £300 a year extra for ordinary families to find out of budgets already squeezed by general cost of living rises and stagnant wages. And whether Sir John gets his wish or not, many of these families won’t qualify for any kind of extra financial help from the Government – irrespective of how cold it gets this winter.

It is time someone spoke up for us. And it is interesting how this quiet man of British politics has emerged as our unlikely champion.

When Sir John was in charge of the country, he was often derided for his humble background and man-of-the-people credentials.

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To many, he has become a half-forgotten Premier, who retired hurt and bitter from a battering by his own Cabinet colleagues.

Yet he was a true conviction politician who earned his spurs on the streets of South London.

His political blooding was as far removed from the grand dining societies of Oxford or the left-wing intellectual salons of North London as it is possible to be. He still stands out.

To hear him speak up like this now is to be reminded of how sadly lacking politics has become of compassionate individuals in possession of a sure touchstone with voters.

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He has no need to speak up though, no obvious political agenda to promote, except to remind us that there is more than one type of Tory.

Unlike Ed Miliband, he is not after winning the next General Election. The Labour leader 
has promised to freeze energy bills for 20 months if he pulls off victory. The probability of achieving both is looking distinctly shaky. His extremist proposal has worried as many people as it has impressed.

Sir John says that the Labour leader’s “heart was in the right place, but his head has gone walkabout”. He is right not to 
side with Miliband directly.

However, his outspoken stance adds fuel to Labour’s claim that for his part, Mr Cameron sides with the energy companies and not the consumers.

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Sir John’s surprising intervention gives us fresh perspective on a matter which affects us all.

Will it make any difference whatsoever though? Let’s hope that it does, because the energy companies – and the industry regulator Ofgem – must be held to account, whatever it takes.

Their bosses have been called 
to appear yet again before MPs 
next week to justify the latest price rises.

We’ve been there before though. And to date, those shadowy figures under scrutiny have done nothing to convince us that they comprehend the concerns of the ordinary people they fleece without conscience.

In stark contrast, Sir John Major, former Prime Minister, Tory peer, and once an employee of the London Electricity Board himself, has done much to convince us that he does.