While Boris Johnson used his farewell speech to praise the ‘vital symmetry between government action and free market capitalist private sector enterprise’, the formerly free market Liz Truss was busy briefing out price caps on energy. There are only three possible explanations for this sudden change of heart: No. 10 is haunted by the malign ghost of Clement Attlee, the building is riddled with lead piping, or the electoral incentives facing the Conservative party are so perverse that when push comes to shove, even free marketeers are willing to abandon the free market in the race to expropriate from the young to pay for the old.
Given that Truss has yet to officially enter her new residence, my money is on the last option. It’s hard to explain how else the party could see freezing household energy bills as a good idea: the government is about to spend a combined total of £170 billion on making sure we get blackouts this winter; £130 billion to cap energy prices for households and an estimated £40 billion to do the same for businesses.
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