British Gas: A Broken System

The unjustified hike of electricity prices by British Gas is all to do with the inefficiencies of that company and nothing to do with energy costs, which are in fact reducing. What this underscores is that a public utility is a unique entity. It is not like any other sort of business. From the inception of the notion of a universal public service, perhaps like the Royal Mail and later public drainage, some form of public authority was considered the best way to deliver them.

Then came Thatcher and the attack on public ownership, the demonisation of the State, the dismissal of society ‘there is no such thing’, and the sovereignty of the individual interest over the public good. This blog regards that as one of the most damaging political philosophies ever to take root, as its outcome, the disenchantment which has led to Brexit, the chaos of trying to implement it, the crisis in public service provision, soaring personal debt, the inability to balance the Budget and many other evils, all lead back to the launch of this misguided tinkering in the sensible order of modern interdependent civilisation.

Before the electricity was privatised we had the most advanced generation and distribution system in the world. Energy costs were reasonable. We led the world in building nuclear power plants. Then we privatised. You know the rest.