Readers' letters: Brown’s plan lets companies off hook

Gordon Brown’s latest attempt to mitigate the disaster of this UK Government is to suggest that struggling energy companies be temporarily renationalised.
Where Art I? - Edinburgh Sketcher, 15 August 2022Where Art I? - Edinburgh Sketcher, 15 August 2022
Where Art I? - Edinburgh Sketcher, 15 August 2022

In other words, let the state shoulder the losses of poorly run private companies then, when the crisis blows over, return them to private control where these same companies can resume making profits and rewarding shareholders.

This is absurd. It lets these companies off the hook and does nothing to help people meet their energy bills. But that’s the Labour Party for you, more interested in helping corporations than people.

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What a competent government would do is get rid of standing charges and make energy tariffs progressive, putting pre-paid meters on the lowest, not highest, tariff; and ensure that each home pays the same proportion of its income on energy to eliminate fuel poverty.

Gordon Brown has called for more action to tackle the cost-of-living.Gordon Brown has called for more action to tackle the cost-of-living.
Gordon Brown has called for more action to tackle the cost-of-living.

Trouble is, a Labour government won't counter corporate greed as it has backed away from public ownership of monopolies and opposes Scotland’s right to govern itself.

What an independent Scotland would do is take energy back into public ownership, end fuel poverty and invest in our abundant energy resources to benefit our citizens, not corporations. Not a hard choice, is it?

Leah Gunn Barrett, Edinburgh.

Passing clouds

Today we have no clouds in the sky. Not one, not even a few wisps of clouds high above us.

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I can’t remember ever seeing such an empty sky here, in Tayside, or anywhere in Scotland. It’s very hot, too hot for comfort, so I joined my sensible little cat in the cool shade beneath a tree. Scientists warn that the ability of clouds to keep us cool could be extremely reduced in a warming world. They’re our sunscreen, and without them, global warming would escalate at a dangerous rate.

If anyone still doubts the reality of climate warming, and the danger it represents for the future of our planet and for multiple species, including humans, this should be a trumpet blast, not just a gentle wake-up call warning us that our planet is reaching a tipping point where the damage will be irreversible.

Indeed, the damage is accelerating at a great rate, and, if we don’t take action to reduce our lethal impact on our only home, we’ll become yet another extinct species - but we’ll take countless species with us.

Carolyn Taylor, Broughty Ferry.

Curling funding

In announcing her retirement from curling, Eve Muirhead paid tribute to the funding received from the National Lottery and UK Sport for the British and Scottish Curling programmes.

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It would be interesting to know how many other sports in Scotland benefit from such UK funding and other UK facilities.

Tim Jackson, Gullane.

Insulation solution

The only effective way to solve our future energy needs is to reduce our consumption and that will only be achieved when we have free home insulation packages available for every home in Scotland.

The existing Scottish Home Energy quango should be scrapped as is difficult to access, cumbersome and achieves very little due to its highly bureaucratic set up and replaced with a simple "free on application" scheme for all homes in Scotland.

If we can use the Scandinavian insulation standard as a guide within two years we could be reducing our energy consumption in Scotland by 30-50 per cent.

Dennis Forbes Grattan, Aberdeen.

Write to the Edinburgh Evening News

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