Nationalised industry is good for workers and good for communities. Politicians should cease and desist from the asset stripping and selling off, to the highest bidder, of Scotland’s public services, writes Herald columnist and STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer.

The cost of a barrel of oil is now between $95-100. It was $70 dollars before the US and Israel attacked Iran. That surge in energy prices is rippling through our forecourts, our household bills and our domestic industries. While the immediate blame for this lies with Trump and Netanyahu, the UK’s reliance on global markets to meet our energy needs has left us particularly exposed. We imported 44% of our energy last year. Yet the Tory Government shut down our last gas storage facility in 2017, while Margaret Thatcher’s privatisation of our oil, our gas and our electricity systems means that wholesale price spikes now flow directly to consumers.

A typical combined household gas and electricity bill is now forecast to reach the best part of £2000 a year. The think tank Commonwealth estimate that a quarter of this is corporate profit. Besides households, energy price increases impact industrial energy users, including energy intensive industries like steel, glass, paper, and petrochemicals. The UK already has the highest industrial electricity prices in Europe, putting domestic industry at a competitive disadvantage.

These global energy price shocks – which, unfortunately, aren’t going away anytime soon – is why the Energy Secretary Ed Miliband talks about getting off the fossil fuel rollercoaster. While investing in clean energy is certainly part of the solution – the real rollercoaster that we need to get off is that of private profiteering. After........

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