Call of duty
THE war on Iran is so fast-moving that events may well render anything Rachel Reeves told MPs yesterday as irrelevant within weeks, if not days.
But as it stands she is right to rule out an unaffordable universal energy bailout.
We are still paying off the £40billion cost of the last one brought in by Liz Truss in 2022 — under severe pressure, it should be remembered, from the then-Opposition leader Keir Starmer.
The Chancellor — who wants to limit any aid to the “most vulnerable” — will be praying Donald Trump’s five-day pause turns into a permanent ceasefire.
Starmer and Reeves may seem powerless in the face of this global energy shock.
But there are two areas where they CAN make a difference.
Diesel has jumped to its highest in three years — 166.88p per litre — while petrol has risen by 12.45p to 144.16p.
For all Reeves’s talk of cracking down on war profiteering, there is only one price-gouger when it comes to fuel: the Treasury.
Last month, forecourt retailers were making a 6p per litre profit.
Yet the Government creams off 53p per litre in tax.
Reeves plans to increase fuel duty by another 5p, starting with a penny in September, having decided to scrap the discount introduced four years ago.
She should reverse this decision immediately.
The war has also further exposed the dangerous nonsense of Ed Miliband’s refusal to drill for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Exploiting these fields would bring in £25billion in tax receipts and reduce our reliance on dirty imported energy.
So when will our weakened PM put national interest above self-interest by reining Miliband in?
Tinpot dictators
MANY households will be wondering what they get in return for the increased size of the council tax bills currently thudding on to their doormats.
Certainly, the answer isn’t better roads.
Local authorities love nothing more than to rip off motorists with parking fines and LTN cash cows.
But when it comes to fixing potholes they immediately plead poverty.
Would it be too much to ask for Government to force them to spend income they make from fleecing drivers on repairing our crumbling roads?
Right on cue
IMAGINE football with no Wembley, cricket without Lord’s or Cheltenham missing from the racing calendar.
The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield is snooker’s spiritual home.
So it’s great news that the local council has struck a huge deal to stage the World Championships there until 2045.
Happy baize.
