Ed Miliband put up your energy bills – and hoped you wouldn't notice

The National

4 days ago

THE end of term is usually accompanied by hijinks and obnoxious traditions.
At my alma mater, that august institution Park Mains High, it was the thing for departing sixth-year pupils to throw fish onto the roof, hire bands to follow teachers around and generally make a nuisance of themselves before going to the beach and getting diabolically mad wae it.
Ed Miliband – and the rest of the UK Government – have an entirely different tradition, one even more antisocial than spraying a French class with Silly String and drinking WKD in the rain.
He decided to see off the year as is custom in the House of Commons – by sneaking out some bad news under the wire, hoping that no one would notice.
Miliband took the last day of term before MPs knocked off for a six-week-long holiday – sorry, I mean 'working in the constituency' – to let slip that he was putting up your energy bills.
(Image: Mike Page)
This is to pay for the ballooning cost of the Sizewell C nuclear plant in Suffolk. Incidentally, another thing that the Energy Secretary let out the bag on Tuesday was that the cost of this had almost doubled to £38 billion. That is regrettable but Miliband did not want us to get too down about it.
The UK Government expects that it will be 'limited to an average of around £1 a month on a typical household bill'. Given the way that energy bills have gone in recent years, I doubt that anyone feels anything less than seething resentment at paying even another penny.
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Not to worry though, Miliband's statement to the Commons reassures us: 'This is a good deal for consumers, as demonstrated by the value for money assessment that will be published today.'
Well, that's alright then. In virtually the same breath, value-for-money whizz Miliband tells us that the UK Government is the biggest equity stakeholder in Sizewell C, with La Caisse taking a 20% stake, Centrica 15%, EDF 12.5%, and Amber Infrastructure Ltd initially 7.6%.
I think it unlikely their interest derives chiefly from their beneficence.
This is a classic tactic by governments. Slip out some politically sensitive news on the last day before one of Parliament's absurdly long recesses – your regular reminder that MPs are paid £93,904 per annum, plus expenses – and hope that no one notices.
On the same day, the Government also told us – through written statements only checked by journalists and wonks – that it would use artificial intelligence, yes, the same thing that has told people to put glue on pizzas and praised Adolf Hitler – to check the age of asylum seekers.
And they disclosed that the Government's official target to spend 0.7% of gross national income on foreign aid had been missed.
This last was the least surprising, given that Keir Starmer had previously announced the budget was being raided to pay for more bombs. But don't forget just how politically sensitive this issue is; the Prime Minister's announcement earlier this year triggered the resignation of Anneliese Dodds from her position as international development minister.
These stories may fade into the ether of the summer or they could come back when parliamentary scrutiny resumes at the beginning of September. But we felt it important to give you a reminder; we never like letting them get away with it.
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