First they say they can’t do it, because it would be wrong. Then they admit it could be done, but they won’t do it because it would cost too much.
But under growing pressure to “do something”, they begin hinting that it might be done, with some money they found in a tin bath under the stairs.
That’s how the Tories make policy. They spend our money on us when it becomes politically impossible not to. It’s as cynical as that.
We are approaching that stage now, with ministerial hints that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is examining ways to protect households from a 20% rise in energy bills next month.
Lugubrious Energy Secretary Grant Shapps was sent out to run this good news up the flagpole, saying he’s “very sympathetic” to scrapping the price hike.
The money is there. Falling energy prices, bumper tax revenues and a shallower than expected recession have slashed the Government’s borrowing bill by a cool £30billion.
It would cost £3billion – one tenth of that windfall – to prevent price increases that would double the number of people in fuel poverty.
So I look to the Chancellor to “do something” in his Budget in 12 days to avert a cliff-edge calamity on April 1. Consumer champion Martin Lewis thinks a U-turn is more than 50-50 likely. I trust his maths.
But this is no way to run the country. The Tories refused to impose a windfall tax on the obscenely rich energy companies, and then did it. They refused to intervene in the market, and then did so.
It’s always too little, and if not too late, then at the 59th minute of the 11th hour, grudgingly and half-hearted. They obviously enjoy driving up the nation’s blood pressure – one of the few blood sports still available.
