There has been, in the last week, a great deal of words said – and written – about the price rise that British Gas has announced.<\/p>\n
Most of the words have been against the announced increase. British Gas is making profit at a time many of their most vulnerable customers are struggling to pay their bills. That kind of thing.<\/p>\n
But the fact is that most of the speakers\u00a0of most of the words have got it wrong.<\/p>\n
It is the duty of British Gas – a publicly traded company – to make as much profit as possible.<\/p>\n
It is not the duty of British Gas to have a social conscience.<\/p>\n
British Gas only has one function and, it may surprise some people to learn, that function is to make as much money as possible for its shareholders.<\/p>\n
British Gas could diversify into other high profit areas. Selling arms, for example, as do other publicly traded companies.<\/p>\n
Making money is the only aim of British Gas.<\/p>\n
The wider questions which everyone who has written a Tweet, a blog, Comment Is Free about, has missed, are seemingly more obvious, yet nobody has aired them.<\/p>\n
So I will.<\/p>\n
Should the Thatcher Government have taken out of public ownership a not-for-profit organisation?<\/p>\n
Was selling a not-for-profit organisation, which was owned by the public, and wholly able to be guided by the Government’s social agenda, a massive lapse in thinking?<\/p>\n
Or was turning British Gas in to a profit-orientated corporate entity a good thing?<\/p>\n
Answers?<\/p>\n
Thoughts?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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