This poll out today saying nearly half of us are more concerned about power prices than we were a year ago, is nonsense. 

Because I reckon we’re all concerned about it, not just nearly half of us. 

If you’re not concerned about your power bill, then I’ll have what you’re having thanks. 

Only 8% of people who took part in this survey by Curia said they were less concerned. I’ll have some of what they're having, as well. 

More to the point, as well as being worried about the prices, we should be just as —if not more— concerned about the lack of action when it comes to doing something about it. 

And maybe that’s because there is actually one way of doing something about it. It’s probably a bit old school, but I reckon we are never going to get on top of rising power prices unless the government takes over ownership of the whole thing. Just like it used to. 

Nationalise it. 

Because I’ve had a gutsful of politicians saying the same stuff, year after year, and nothing changing – and I’m talking about politicians from all sides here. 

And the people who took part in this survey feel the same. 69% said the Government isn’t doing enough to bring prices down. 13% thought it was, and 18% didn’t know. 

The results also show 67% believe the profits being made by electricity companies are unreasonably high. The only thing I would say to that is, how do they know? 

I’m sure you can find that information somewhere, but I think there is an assumption that the power companies are creaming it. 

Nevertheless, for me, the only solution to the power price issue is nationalisation – then we’d get more than just words and no action. 

Example: Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones going all “shock horror” on it. Saying he can’t believe how bad things have got. 

He’s saying today: “I can’t believe, even in my lifetime, I’d see it this bad.” 

Which is all very well, but what are you going to do about it Shane? 

My message is the same to Energy Minister Simon Watts, who is saying: “Energy prices have added real pressure to household budgets at a time when the cost of living is already biting hard”. 

Yes Minister. But tell us something we don’t know already. 

The current government. The last lot. The government before them. And the one before them. They’re all the same. They tut-tut about power prices and promise this and promise that, but nothing changes. 

And it’s probably because they know that they can’t actually do anything, because the model is broken. 

They probably know that the only way they could do something would be to buy back the shares in the big power generation and retail companies that were flogged off years ago go back to some sort of electricity corporation model. 

I’m not the only one thinking that this is old-school approach is the answer. 

Power prices going through the roof are a problem all around the world. Which is why over in the UK, one of these think tank outfits thinks the British government should take over ownership of all the gas power stations so that consumers aren't "held to ransom" by the power companies. 

So if they think that, and I think that, what do you think? 

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