Sad times at the Daily Express. The Eurosceptic paper and leading authority on Buckingham Palace goings-on circa 1995 was disappointed to learn on Tuesday (31 May) that Rishi Sunak’s recent tax break for oil and gas exploration “squandered a major opportunity to slash household energy bills”.
Apparently, the money earmarked for finding yet more combustible fossils “could have been used to permanently slash the energy bills of two million households in the UK through home insulation measures”.
What a cock-up! The Express was already worried enough about energy bills, discovering at the start of May that 12 million homes in England and Wales “only meet insulation standards of 1976 or earlier”.
Strangely, both articles failed to mention that a dedicated campaign group, Insulate Britain, spent the tail-end of 2021 trying to get the government to deal with just this problem. It’s a funny oversight, given how many of its own kilowatt hours the Express spent writing about Insulate Britain last year.
“‘Why should I pay for you?!’ Insulate Britain’s demands shut down in fiery row,” recorded one Express article in October. “‘Britain IS insulated!’ Housing expert HUMILIATES furious road protestor live on radio,” mused another.
Indeed, the Express published dozens of articles closely covering how Insulate Britain’s protests were received by the British public. In particular, it covered that part of the British public that happens to comment on the Daily Express website, which urged Boris Johnson “to not bow down to Insulate Britain ‘anarchists’” and described the group as “self-righteous idiots”.
It’s Funny, then, that the Express seems to have forgotten all about Insulate Britain in an article about insulating Britain – but then, googling to check your website back catalogue is much more expensive now energy bills have soared.
Regardless, now that the paper has been reminded, keep an eye out next time you’re on the road for “self-righteous idiots” from Express towers.
[See also: No 10 officials need to stand up to Boris Johnson, not appease him]
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