It could be a winter of discontent. Millions of people are braced for eye-watering energy bills. Some may choose not to heat their homes and others could refuse to pay, perhaps amid mass civil disobedience. And the government is rudderless — waiting for the Tory Party to crown a leader next month who will have just a matter of weeks to decide on a way forward.
Into the vacuum last week stepped Gordon Brown. In demands designed to shame ministers for their inaction — and possibly also the leader of the opposition — the former Labour prime minister called for the energy price cap to be scrapped; payments to vulnerable households from October; a “watertight windfall tax” on energy companies; and even nationalisation for
