To Eat or Heat? Cameron U-turns on Fuel Poverty Bill Spells Abject Misery For Poor, Elderly & Disabled

In amongst all this government's broken promises and the many u-turns, is the plight of many elderly people and poorer families who will without a shadow of a doubt find themselves in dire circumstances this winter. It emerged last week  that the Tory-led government have done another u-turn during a committee session scrutinising the current energy bill, when the government's junior minister, Greg Barker, said that the 2016 target "cannot be reached". This u-turn actually came one week after Scottish power announced they were to raise the cost of gas by 19% and electric by  10%!

Scottish power said the increase which would affect 2.4 million households in the UK, would come into effect from 1 August.
Affected customers will see an average daily rise to a dual fuel energy bill of 48p per day.

 This is seriously bad news it will hit the elderly and those people living on low poor incomes and fixed incomes like the disabled and low wage earners. Along with the 2.5% rise in Vat and soaring inflation, food costs are soaring and many elderly and families will be shivering this winter. In some cases it is going to mean a straight choice between eating or heating! many of the people this will affect badly are those that have already had their benefits cut or their wages frozen - a direct consequence of the Tory-led government's actions to reduce the deficit run up by being forced to bail the bankers out.

The Tory government have already announced plans that they are to *CUT* up to £100 OFF of the elderly's Winter Fuel Allowance which a NON means tested benefit which was introduced by the previous Labour government and which has literally proved to be a life saver in terms of allowing pensioners to adequately heat their homes.

The Conservative government are already in the process of "attacking" the benefits of mentally and physically disabled people through their long and rambling sloppy welfare reforms bill, which was read a third time and voted through parliament by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats last week, it now is being considered by the House of Lords.

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, when in opposition said they would not cut pensioners Winter Fuel Allowance, he repeated it many times, in fact he repeated it in one of the leadership debates which were held in the 2010 general election, don't take my word for it see for yourself.

Pure and Simple Lies

As soon as David Cameron managed to get himself installed into government he reneged on that promise and cut pensioners winter fuel allowance.

How is the government expecting the elderly, the poor, the vulnerable, the disabled, the acutely and chronically sick, the unemployed to keep warm this winter when he has reneged on another of his main pledges to end fuel poverty and as a result of this we have Scottish power putting up their gas by a colossal 19% and their electric by 10%.

How are these groups going to manage to heat their homes and cook their meals and keep warm this winter, when they have already taken a cut in their benefits and some already on low pay are experiencing pay freezes? The cost of getting to work by train or bus has soared too.

David Cameron once boasted that his party was " the best prepared opposition ever" and would be what this country needed a strong stable government. This government have turned out to be the opposite, they are weak, divided and sloppy, the Conservative -led government have been forced into at least 35 u-turns and at least 36 broken promises.
They portray themselves as a "listening government", but these problems where they are forced to u-turn, do not just drop out of the sky, out of the blue they are all discussed and debated in cabinet meetings and some have made it to the Green and White paper stages of becoming law. The NHS bill for example was actually voted on TWICE by the Tories AND the Liberal Democrats before the government was forced to do a u-turn because it met a wall of opposition form medical professionals, the Labour party and the general public and other concerned groups and unions such as the BMA, had it not been for this wall of opposition this government both the Tories and the Liberal democrats would have voted the "Liberating the NHS" reform bills through in their entirety, which would have meant that Tory doning private health companies would have got their hands on our NHS, this is what the Tories wanted them it is still what they want and it is still what they are trying to get.

This is not a listening government this is a sloppy incompetent government out of its depth, headed by a prime minister who admits he doesn't see the need to get up very early and gives his ministers a free hand to do what they like and say what they like and the outcome of all this flip-flopping is a weak indecisive government that keeps being forced to change unworkable policies. The only policy they are sticking to is their policies on the economy which are now being heavily criticised by world leading economists.

On a day when the government has just performed another huge u-turn on the Justice reforms I would like to ask the prime minister how the above mentioned groups are going to afford to heat their homes and cook their meals this coming winter, after he reneged on a promise to end fuel poverty?

These people are going to be forced into a position by this government of either "eat or heating", which would David Cameron chosse for his children or elderly mother?