To the left is the CEO of an unnamed energy company when told he would have to justify price rises to the regulator OFGEM. The Government is just totally impotent in the face of these huge rises - even the latest wheeze of getting the companies to fund £900m for better insulation can easily be passed onto the consumer. The domestic energy market alone is worth about £30bn so Brown's big boast of "a sea-change" in energy consumption looks empty if not insulting. I would be very surprised if the full amount is even spent as the Government's "Warm Front" scheme has been offering almost exactly the same deal since 2000. This big idea also fails to address those legions of families in fuel poverty who rent and whose landlords are not inclined to pay their share.
Millions of Labour voters are desperate to see the Government flexing its muscles, showing it can match words with deeds and address some of the glaringly obvious social injustices. But Brown always tries to strike a perfect balance between all interested parties and in the end nothing is achieved.
Labour's raison d'etre, its rallying cry, used to be equality. Without it there would have been no equal pay act, race relations act or minimum wage.
Now even the word 'equality' sounds too left-wing. It has been expunged and replaced by the altogther more woolly 'fairness'. A good example (below) is an excerpt from Gordon Brown's message to party members at conference on two week's time.
"I know there are people who feel that modern Britain has been unfair to them. Some of them are right. But there is nothing that is bad about Britain that cannot be overcome by what is good about Britain, as long as we keep faith with our belief in fairness. Throughout our history, this nation has repeatedly demonstrated a proud spirit of cautious and practical optimism and we call on that spirit once again. Fair rules, fair chances, and a fair say for everyone: that is the new deal for this new world." Click on the link below for the full text (if you can bear it).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/sep/08/labour.gordonbrown
Reading the words I was reminded of Robert Donat in the 39 Steps (there's one for the teenagers) when he is compelled to address a public meeting and reels off a series of crowd-pleasing but meaningless platitudes. Brown's vision is similarly opaque. If you forced to summarise his philosophy it would be, "we believe in things in general!"
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