THE fuel crisis, its political implications and a call for public ownership of energy companies were the issues raised by columnists and contributors in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Dan Wootton said 42 years ago one simple image helped sweep Labour from power after Britain’s last Winter of Discontent and put Margaret Thatcher in Downing Street - an image of queues outside a Job Centre and the phrase Labour isn’t working.

“Now, four decades later, Tory MPs worryingly concede in private that, despite the pathetic lack of a functioning opposition, there’s an eerily similar mood in the air,” he said. “Much as former supporters of the Prime Minister like me don’t want to have to admit it, that poster could now just as well read: Boris Isn’t Working.”

He said we are queuing for petrol, queuing at passport control and queuing to get NHS treatment.

“Confusion, panic, mixed government messaging, U-turns, dithering and then terrifying briefings designed to scare us back into submission are becoming habitual,” he said. “Boris must take back control of the agenda and prove to Britain that he has a stabilising plan to lead us back to permanent normality without another moment of dither or delay. And without more desperate and destabilising queues forming anywhere else.”

The Guardian

Cat Hobbs, founder of We Own It, an organisation that campaigns for public ownership of public services, said the privatisation of public services is a 40-year failed experiment that voters have had enough of.

“On Sunday, Labour conference delegates voted for a green new deal motion that included support for public ownership of energy and public transport,” she said. “There’s never been a better time to create a publicly-owned energy supply company. The recent energy market crisis means that the government may end up having no choice but to create one, as bigger energy suppliers can’t necessarily take on the customers of companies that are going bust.”

The Independent

The newspaper’s leader column said Boris Johnson took his time to appear on television after the start of the fuel crisis.

“When protesters against fuel duty rises blockaded supplies in 2000, causing a similar crisis, Tony Blair held daily briefings to update people on how the government was handling the situation,” it said. This time, Boris Johnson has been conspicuous in his absence, and even now has only delivered a few words to a shared camera to say that things are “stabilising”.”

It said perhaps the prime minister did not want to escalate the response and feared addressing the nation might increase panic buying.

“We have, unfortunately, gone beyond that point. The government should have taken early and decisive action to ration purchases, not least because it would have sent the message that ministers were in control.”