Gas Barons Profit While People Suffer: Time to Reclaim Our Common Wealth from the Oligarchs

British Gas owner Centrica sees profits leap almost 900% to £969m
Underlying earnings at Centrica’s gas and electricity supply arm leapt 889 percent to £969million in the six months to June 30 from £98million a year earlier.

Nationalisation places people over profit. It’s time to reclaim our stolen common wealth and rejuvenate the public good.

While the common folk sink under soaring costs for food, rent and heat, the Gas Barons revel in their ill-got billions, plundered from the captive populace – a ninefold profit surge off the people’s hardship, enabled by craven politicians who stripped the nation’s resources from public hands and gifted it to oligarchy.

You cannot escape the glaring truth: the rapacious greed of the oligarchs reigns supreme, their grasp on our precious natural resources a chokehold on our very existence.

Witness their audacious takeover of our commons, sold for a song by Thatcher, allowing foreign hedge funders and even states to exploit obscene fortunes from the sweat of our brows.

The brazen display of their plunder is reflected in the staggering quarterly returns, as British Gas owner Centrica witnesses its profits leap nearly 900% to a staggering £969 million. This is not mere business; it is an outright plunder, abetted by the very politicians who, through decrees and legislation, pilfered the people’s rightful possessions and granted the exploiters a free rein to bleed us dry.

Successive governments enabled this injustice by selling off public assets to unaccountable private monopolies. Under the guise of efficiency, natural resources like gas and water were handed to corporations free to gouge captive customers. These fire sales created regional fiefdoms of unchecked profiteering, absent public accountability.

Far from improving efficiency, the private model has seen utility companies neglect infrastructure investment to pump up shareholder payouts. Nationalisation is the only solution to run these vital services sustainably in the public interest. Public stewardship would direct profits into decarbonisation, affordable pricing, and resilient systems.

Our only path in throwing off such debt shackles is Nationalisation, to places people over profit. It’s time to reclaim our common wealth and rejuvenate the public good.

From successful examples like EDF in France to electrification programs in the global south, nationalisation has proven its worth across the world. Even the UK’s own history bears witness to its value, with publicly owned utilities and transport playing a crucial role in laying the foundations of our shared prosperity after WWII. It is high time we reclaim that legacy and prioritise the public’s welfare.

Unfortunately, we have no mainstream party to carry that policy.

Who Will Carry the Banner

Labour’s quislings and lickspittles cower before profiteers stripping the nation bare.

In the past, the constraints imposed by the EU’s competition and monopoly articles posed challenges to nationalisation. But the true disappointment and anger lie in the present, with political parties, especially the Labour Party, failing to uphold their promises.

Even a Party in opposition can influence the political and economic landscape. By holding over the Tories, the idea of nationalisation a popular policy for all voters, Starmer could have influenced government policy just by sticking to his pledge to nationalise.

However, despite being elected on those clear manifesto pledges, Starmer and the Labour Party now refuse to keep to the promises and policies the people voted for. Instead, their pledges gather dust while energy predators feast on the struggles of the working class knowing even a Labour government if elected will bring no change.

Instead, the party that once claimed to represent the people echoes the lies of oligarchy, The Labour Party now declare themselves the Party of Business, offering nothing but excuses while working families suffer in darkness and cold, hungry from the profiteering supermarkets to boot.

Even when the costed manifesto presented workable solutions on nationalisation, they reject them, showing cowardice and a lack of conviction. This betrayal not only lets down their constituents but also squanders the potential for meaningful change.

The giants of the past, like Attlee and Bevan, shine in comparison to today’s Labour, which has become a hollow version of its former self. It is captive not just to pointless nostalgia but also to anti-socialist infiltrators who serve the interests of big money.

At a time when reclaiming our stolen public resources from water, rail, mail, gas, and oil is crucial, Labour has turned its back on nationalisation, betraying its founding principles. If so-called Socialists cannot stand up for public ownership now, what value do they truly hold?

The craven imposters in Labour today disgrace the party’s name, showing less courage than rats fleeing a sinking ship. As the realisation that the Labour is dead to the working class grows. We are reminded of Antonio Gramsci who stated -now is the time of monsters… but it’s also the time of a new beginning, for new parties and even new hope.

The Tories’ reign of greed continues unabated, while Labour’s cringing capitulation leaves the working class politically orphaned. This interregnum births monsters, but also possibility. As the old order putrefies, this darkness precedes the dawn. Now is the hour for new voices, even new hope.

Those that want emancipation of the working class must look elsewhere or build anew…

But we must also confront the deeper malaise of lobbying and regulatory capture if ever the system was to change. The revolving door spinning between government and business corrupts policymaking. Westminster and Whitehall are infested by corporate power instead of representing public welfare.

The “revolving door” allows MPs and ministers to be seduced by corporate lobbying gigs.

Tackling Lobbying Ends Plutocracy Masquerading as Democracy

Ministers, civil servants and MPs enjoy lucrative second careers selling policy influence. Fossil fuel companies, banks and monopolies funnel vast sums into lobbying and jobs for the political class. In return, they gain billions from privatisation, subsidies, tax breaks and regulatory favours.

A staggering 148 MPs held paid second jobs recently, working for banks, hedge funds, energy giants and more. Public service is treated as a side-hustle for private enrichment. Vested interests hold sway over policymaking.

This oligarchic system breeds inertia on crises from climate breakdown to obscene inequality. The few grow rich as the public realm crumbles. Only sweeping reforms can redeem democracy. Shutting the revolving door, banning MP second jobs and cleaning up lobbying are urgently needed.

This endemic corruption must end. Legislation capping donations and banning second jobs is urgently needed. Announcements of after-office jobs should come with “cooling off” periods to limit improper lobbying. The ACOBA system has proven utterly useless at regulating business appointments – it must be replaced.

Right now, Starmer’s right hand man Lord Mandelson not only whispers in the opposition leader’s ear, but he also owns a lobbying company that has Centrica as a client. while Amber Rudd sits on the board of British gas…

Things could be so different if the politicians we elected were accountable to the people and didn’t see their future with the Banks and globalist oligarchy.

For instance, a levy on nationalised utilities as resembling the Norwegian model could capitalize a Citizens’ Wealth Fund, paying dividends to all. Such innovative funding models can transition to an economy of shared prosperity instead of hoarded riches.

The policy solutions exist. But first the corrupt nexus of concentrated private wealth and captured politics must be shattered. Nationalisation places people over profit. Tackling lobbying ends plutocracy masquerading as democracy. It’s time to reclaim our common wealth and rejuvenate the public good.

Only by radically reforming politics, eliminating conflicts of interest, and bringing essential utilities back under democratic control can the commons be revitalised for the 21st century. We cannot sit idle while public wealth is plundered for private profit. Now is the time to reclaim what is rightfully ours.