Energy crisis: why ‘keep calm but cut down’ may be a better message for Labour
Labour ministers sent out in recent days to respond to the looming energy crisis sparked by the Iran war have essentially stuck to that reassuring wartime slogan: keep calm and carry on.“I think people should go about their lives as normal, knowing that the government is taking action to bring energy bills down,” James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Tuesday.But as the oil price surges once more, there are growing fears the government’s “don’t panic” messaging may be underplaying the scale of the challenges ahead and crowding out sensible advice on cutting consumption.“It’s the wrong message,” says Andrew Sissons, the director of the climate programme at research foundation Nesta, referring to the government’s communications so far on the war’s impact.“The reality is that the global supply of oil and gas is going to be down by maybe 20%.
It’s a supply crisis, which means everybody needs to consume less.”Part of Labour’s challenge is that it dearly wants to claim credit for the £117-a-year cut to household utility bills that was a central theme in the chancellor Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget.That reduction, paid for by shifting the cost of green schemes on to general taxation and scrapping a flawed energy efficiency scheme, comes into effect in April.Yet it is already clear that the cost of household energy will rise again in the summer, when the next quarterly price cap is set.The latest forecast from consultancy Cornwall Insight estimates the cost of a dual-fuel bill will rise by 17.
6% from July – swamping the 7% cut in April.Meanwhile, oil and petrol prices have leapt since the start of Donald Trump’s bombing campaign and Iran’s retaliatory strikes.Over time, these higher costs are expected to feed through to prices across a wide range of products.So having put tackling the cost of living at the heart of their pitch to the public, ministers now face having to explain why energy inflation is expected to increase once again.No government wants to sow panic – less still panic buying – so the “keep calm” message is understandable.
Talking down the economy, by denting fragile consumer confidence, is also the last thing they want to do.And the government is also trying to face down a vociferous campaign from opposition parties about Reeves’s plans to reverse the Tories’ 5p cut to fuel duty, in three steps from September to next March.While income from VAT on fuel will rise as a result of higher prices, wider tax revenues will be hit by the increasingly expected economic slowdown – and the government’s cost of borrowing has risen too since the crisis began, jeopardising Reeves’s fiscal targets.It is these fears over tax and spend that have prompted the chancellor to insist that any help with utility bills must be “targeted” – a view widely shared by thinktanks, including the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Resolution Foundation.But the government has found itself unwilling or unable to make the other part of this argument – that many people will have to brace themselves for higher bills, and it would be a good thing if, as a society, we could crimp our energy use.
Sissons argues: “The message from the government should be: number one, be more efficient wherever you can – where you can save energy without going cold or stopping travelling, then do; and number two, this is a great time to be switching away from oil and gas on to clean electricity, on to heat pumps and electric vehicles, which is exactly what the government wants us to be doing anyway,”Jill Rutter, of the Institute for Government thinktank, once a senior civil servant in the Treasury, says she would prefer a message that was more like “keep calm, but you can probably find some quite useful savings,” adding: “There are things you can do to manage down your consumption,”Labour is understandably keen to avoid anything that might smack of the “nanny state”, let alone the dread word “rationing”,But the risk is that, as the conflict continues, “keep calm and carry on” sounds increasingly adrift from reality,
Sam Konstas axed from Cricket Australia’s contract list for busy 2026-27 season
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Mako Vunipola to join Leicester and link up with former England teammate Parling
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Dan Hurley’s ‘head-butt’ showed Black coaches aren’t given the same grace as white coaches
The UConn-Duke game on Sunday night was one for the ages. A last-second game winner from freshman Braylon Mullins took down the top-seeded Blue Devils, who at one point had led by 19 points. It is a moment that will be replayed over and over for years to come.However, something strange happened after Mullins’s shot. UConn’s head coach Dan Hurley approached referee Roger Ayers and touched foreheads with the official while glaring into his eyes
A gleaming tribute to Mary Rand’s gold | Brief letters
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‘The computer went bananas’: error at O’Brien yard removes horses from 2,000 Guineas
The betting market for the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on 2 May was thrown into confusion on Tuesday when two significant candidates from the Aidan O’Brien stable, Gstaad and Albert Einstein, were taken out of the race, apparently as the result of an administrative error.The chaos was then compounded later in the day by uncertainty over whether a plan to re-engage both colts if necessary at a cost of £30,000 each might be prohibited by the rules of entry, before the British Horseracing Authority confirmed that supplementary entries would in fact be accepted.Gstaad, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar in November, was priced up on Tuesday morning at around 6‑1 for the first Classic of the season, and seen as potentially the Ballydoyle first string for a race the stable has won a record 10 times.He assumed the role of O’Brien’s No 1 contender after Albert Einstein, the winner of his first two starts as a juvenile in 2025 but unraced beyond May because of injury, finished only sixth of 10 runners on his three‑year‑old debut in a Listed race at the Curragh three days ago.Despite that reverse, however, and a subsequent suggestion that Albert Einstein might revert to sprinting with the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot as an initial target, the colt was still priced up at 20-1 for the 2,000 Guineas and O’Brien intended to confirm both two-year-olds at the latest declaration stage on Tuesday
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