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Forget about the price cap, it’s a coherent energy strategy we need to be talking about.
The about-turns in British politics are happening at a dizzying pace. Nowhere is this the case more than in the area of utilities.
Energy price caps, an idea branded as Marxist meddling by ex-prime minister David Cameron when they were mooted by Labour a couple of years ago, looked set to be one of the main pledges in his own party’s manifesto when Utility Week went to press this week.
Not to be outdone by what many see as shameless Tory cross-dressing, Labour’s now genuinely hard left-wing leadership went one step further by proposing that default tariffs should be kept below £1,000.
On issues from enhanced workers’ rights to building more social housing, the Tories are moving into the centre ground of politics that Labour’s leadership seems happy to surrender.
Pledges such as the energy cap enable the Tories to distance themselves from the uncaring image that dissuaded many from voting for them in recent years.
Every party needs to differentiate itself from its opposition. New Labour performed the same trick in the late nineties and early noughties, pushing the Conservatives into increasingly fringe right-wing positions. The same is happening now in reverse, with Labour piling on commitments to restore public ownership across large areas that were privatised, adding water companies to the list this week.
Cynics on Labour’s right wing mutter that the leadership has drawn up the manifesto with an eye on mobilising supporters for the contest that matters to them: control of the party.
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