Shell-shocked by £32bn fuel greed

THE fuel industry has taken an unfair hammering this week.

Shell has made some of the largest profits in UK corporate history, with the surge in energy prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine pushing the oil firm’s annual takings to £32billion.

It’s the biggest bonanza in its 115-year history. Good luck to them, I say.

There is nothing outrageous about a business making a profit to cover previous years’ losses and rewarding shareholders for sticking with them by paying out dividends.

How is it relevant that millions of us can’t afford to heat our homes due to high prices, with thousands dying of hypothermia in freezing houses?

Tough luck, mate. Maybe they should have got better jobs and made more money.

Oh wait, hang on, it’s about now that I should reveal I’ve just been paid a shedload of a cash by the oil industry. That’s all right, isn’t it? I’m okay to completely take leave of my senses and my humanity because I’ve taken a load of cash.

No? Well, that’s what seems to happen in Government.

How else do you explain the reaction of spineless Tory MPs who remain silent while oil giants rob us blind? In 2021 it was revealed the Conservative Party accepted more than £1million in donations from the energy sector. Millions more are spent on “lobbying” (that’s wining, dining and entertaining) our MPs.

Is it any wonder these fossil fuel giants seem to get a free ride?

Maybe that’s where thousands of hard-up pensioners are going wrong. Just scrape together your pensions and take the Cabinet for a slap-up dinner. Maybe then they’ll think about helping you out and get tougher on the oil industry.

It’s greed, pure and simple. Rishi Sunak says there’s no money for nurses and teachers because that’ll cause inflation.

But don’t the billions the fatcats and shareholders get push up prices? This Government only exists to make the rich richer. And screw the rest of us. Shame on all of them.