"UK mulling fuel poverty voucher"

Ooh! Big numbers! And where there's a big number, there's a f***witted idea not far behind, in this instance, a windfall tax to fund fuel vouchers for those in 'fuel poverty'.

Hmm. British Gas' domestic energy division has 10m gas customers and 6m electricity customers (see end of here). So those £571m post-tax profits (which are after paying corporation tax at 50% or 75% don't forget!!) are, er, £35 per household per annum (or £70 if you get gas and electricity from British Gas).

The spokesman for the oil industry points out (see first link) that the government is already getting £1,000 million from households in VAT on domestic fuel = £40 per household per annum, and politely doesn't mention "as much again in bloody corporation tax".

So how about this for a plan ... if 75% tax ain't high enough, levy a 100% windfall tax and give everybody a £35 'fuel voucher' ... oh ... that's no good ... the industry would shut down and we'd have to go without gas or electricity altogether. Hmmm.

Truly, f***wittery of the highest ordure!

Oh, and as is tradition on this 'blog, let me point out that National Energy Action, Charity No. 290511 (mentioned in the first link) is not a group "which helps people on low incomes", it's a f***ing quango. It gets a cool £2m in grants from various government departments (see note 6 to the accounts). Its subsidiary Warm Zones Limited, gets another £9m from the government. Heaven knows whether poor people ever see any of that money.