THE ongoing issue of the cost of gas and what the Government was [not]doing about it was widely debated by columnists in the newspapers.

The Daily Mail

Dan Wootton said Boris Johnson needed to get his priorities straight.

“He risks a winter of discontent if he is seen as presiding over an energy crisis because he has become too obsessed with chasing green targets to please Carrie and the woke mob instead of focussing on the very real problems piling up on the home front,” he said. “ Boris doesn’t want to acknowledge there’s a real gas crisis, ]yet] millions of households are already facing a 12 per cent hike to their bills from October when the government’s higher price cap comes into force. By April, some households could be paying twice as much as they do now.”

He said supermarkets warned they already have a limited supply of some frozen items because of the gas shortages.

“Add that to the prospect of a raft of social distancing measures – and possibly a full lockdown – being reintroduced if the NHS comes under significant threat and the winter looks nothing short of disastrous. To sum it up: It’s a complete and utter mess that is going to further hit hardworking families already facing an unexpected National Insurance increase. That’s why the green levies must be removed immediately to save the winter.”

The Daily Express

Patrick O’Flynn said few things can sink a regime so quickly as the impression of its leaders drifting out of touch with the basic realities of life for ordinary people.

“What then are we to make of Boris Johnson talking about tackling global climate change at the United Nations in New York while gas bills are going through the roof and energy suppliers are going bust back home?,” he asked.

“With more windy rhetoric likely to ensue at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow later in the autumn, just as a limited relaxation in the domestic energy price cap will see bills rise by up to 12 per cent, all the ingredients are in place for a narrative suggesting that the PM and his Cabinet are increasingly disconnected from the British public.”

The Guardian

Marina Hyde said Britain was facing an energy crisis.

“As experts in metaphorically fiddling with the gaslights, you’d think ministers would have been earlier attuned to potential supply issues,” she said. “Yet up until last week, the only gas they kept wanging on about was nitrous oxide,

“For the past two years the UK has operated with a just-in-time prime minister, where the supply of effort to back up some stuff he’s said tends to come onstream at the last minute. This was never going to be the approach to get the best out of Cop26. We might not be quite in the thoughts-and-prayers phase of the conference before it has even begun – but let’s just say we are not exactly cooking with gas.”