„
In another European country, a political leader has been getting far tougher with profiteering energy companies than Miliband has suggested. In this country, the government has imposed a cut of over 20% in energy bills — a 10% reduction came into force in January, a further 11.1% cut will be implemented in November. It is also drafting a bill that would ban utility companies from paying dividends to shareholders. The aim of the government is to return natural monopolies to the public sector, to operate on a non-profit basis. »We must once and for all bring an end to the era where energy providers can ride roughshod over people,« the country's leader declared.
So where is this bastion of socialism in Europe, and who is the wild-eyed leftist who is leading it? Step forward Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary. The man who has declared war on profiteering energy companies is none other than the fiercely anti-communist leader of the centre-right Fidesz party. (...)
Conservatives in Britain could, if they were smart, learn a lesson from Fidesz's brand of economic Gaullism, yet their commitment to market forces and the financial backing the Conservative party received from the City, means that they're likely to stay wedded to the current unpopular and discredited model. That's even when Thatcherite figures from the 80s and 90s such as Sir John Major and Peter Lilley are calling for changes.
The hysterical reaction to Miliband's extremely modest plans for a price freeze demonstrates just how out on a limb the UK is. In the genuinely democratic postwar era it would have been unthinkable that our utilities would one day be privately owned (and for a large part owned by foreign companies), and would then hit households and businesses with above-inflation rises year after year, and that the UK government would simply sit back and do nothing. But that's where we've got to.”