70% of people in Britain support energy nationalisation. 82% support public ownership of water. Despite Burnham’s talk of “ending 40 years of neoliberalism”, he hasn’t put nationalisation onto the agenda.
He did use his speech to Labour conference to announce Great British Grid – which is actually just a part of the already announced ‘Great British Energy’ scheme.
“Great British Grid will complement, rather than replace, the existing institutions responsible for Britain’s energy system and the role of existing network operators remains unchanged”, so says the government website.
So far this year, energy companies have made £6 billion in profit from their operations in Britain. Oh, and our bills are projected to be hiked by £276 a year. Diesel prices have also reached record highs.
But Burnham is doing nothing to take energy infrastructure out of the profiteering bosses’ hands. We need nationalisation. Take over the big energy companies to be put under democratic working-class control and management, with compensation only on the basis of proven need. For a democratic plan of investment to lower our bills while protecting the environment.
