Power play

The Tories’ feeble plans to cap energy price rises don’t go nearly far enough. The Tories simply refuse to understand or accept that the real problem with energy prices is the free-for-all energy “market” they themselves created 30 years ago when our public energy services were privatised.

The idea behind that market is that if people shop around they can always get a better deal on price, so the bigger the market, the better. That policy is deeply flawed and unfair. Very many people have neither the time nor the resources to shop around, and there is plenty of duff advice going around anyway.

It’s the same electricity and gas whoever you buy it from; your hob doesn’t suddenly burn brighter when you change supplier! And if you manage to get a lower price somebody else will have to pay more to maintain the supplier’s profits.

What we urgently need is the abolition of this absurd market, an end to profiteering in energy and a new system in which energy prices are the same for all and are set nationally either by the government or someone on its behalf. It is encouraging that in its election manifesto the Labour Party is proposing big steps in this direction by taking some of the industry back into public ownership and an absolute cap on what people have to pay. At last someone is taking energy prices seriously – and it’s not Theresa May. ROSEMARY MACKENZIE Beaufort Road, Edinburgh