Few results have been so lopsided with so little disagreement about the remedy. No won overwhelmingly, and the most-respected No case rejected the question's premise: “This is not about a handout to the public,” it ran, but about the underlying causes of costly utilities.
The Yes side, thin on arguments, made a small-state case. Its most-respected voice argued that government should “get government out of the way”, with lower taxes and less regulation. Another told the public to stop expecting “a hand out from government every time there is an international crisis”.
No voters were angrier and more varied. One dismissed the VAT cut as “a nice little headline” while the energy market stays broken; another complained that the Chancellor's “targeted and temporary” help leaves working people exposed. Yet a recurring No remedy was subtraction, not spending: one said the government needed to “do a lot less to do more”. A smaller group wanted nationalised energy and transport instead.
That overlap is the finding. One No voter wrote “we have a cost-of-government crisis”, and a Yes voter used almost identical words about state spending and taxes. The two sides split on the answer to the question, not on the diagnosis of what is wrong with government.
As one No voter put it, the problem is not the handout but what makes the bills so high.
51 Opinions
This is not about a handout to the public, but dealing with the underlying causes of why our utilities are so costly.
I think they're actually making it worse by their complete inaction which is giving the likes of petrol energy and supermarkets a green light to continue finding ALL of us. This government has done nothing to make a meaningful impact on any of it. And it's going to cost them at the next GE
Taking VAT off electricity is a nice little headline, but it's completely useless when the energy market is still fundamentally broken. Hearing the Chancellor talk about "targeted and temporary" help just tells me they're planning to leave most working people out in the cold this winter to satisfy arbitrary fiscal rules. You can't fix a massive cost-of-living squeeze by just tinkering at the edges when bills are forecast to jump another 20% in January.
If a grid operator has to spend £50 million in one day to keep the lights on it doesn't bode well for future costs. Maybe we need to revisit our ‘carbon’ stance , climate change …and have an actual scientific debate on the way forward.
We don’t have a cost of living crisis, we have a cost-of-government crisis. The ideological energy policies, the byproducts of mass illegal immigration, and economy-stifling budgets are to blame.
They do not have a clue. The ridiculous images of Miliband & Healey in a tuk tuk demonstrates this is not a serious administration & one gets the firm impression they are out of control. Their policies are on a fixed rail to nowhere and they will not change them. They have no intention of seeking growth & their obsession in giving power & £Billions back to EU is treasonous delusional nonsense. Burnham is another puppet. Time we woke up & turfed them out
Yes. The only thing HMG can do to help with the cost of living is to get government out of the way: a smaller state; less regulation; and lower taxes will make everyone better off.
No. They're taxing all the wrong things in all the wrong ways and taking too much. We're all skint.
The only thing the government need to do is scrap the net zero idiocy. not only would it relieve pressure on households but help in preserve our industrial base.
Maybe if most energy production in this country wasn't foreign owned we wouldn't be in such a state