Greedflation again as Shell posts £7.7bn profits for just THREE MONTHS
The astonishing level of oil giant Shell’s profits for the first three months of this year is appalling enough, when you consider the extortionate prices that corporation charges for its products.
Shell have just reported £7.7 billion more profits for the first 3 months of 2023.
Wholesale gas now 8 times cheaper than it was in August but energy bills remain at record highs.
They are filling their pockets. It’s grotesque.
— Howard Beckett (@BeckettUnite) May 4, 2023
Add in the fact that this money will be handed out to corporate executives and shareholders, and we see that the Tory talk about pay rises for nurses and doctors (for example) being inflationary is bunkum; the fatcats are raking it in and we see no inflationary pressure:
Shell has announced obscene profits of £7.7 billion for the first quarter of 2023. They intend to distribute £9.6 billion to their shareholders by July 2023.
Don’t believe for a second when these energy companies say they cannot afford to lower prices – it’s pure greed
— Claudia Webbe MP (@ClaudiaWebbe) May 4, 2023
Some say that this profit is a good thing, because much of it goes into pension funds for (as an example) nurses.
But of course, nurses could contribute more to their own pension funds if they weren’t forced to pay huge energy bills. And the dividends do go to private shareholders as well.
Others have tried to be smart by asking how much of this profit has been generated in the UK. The answer, though, is simple: too much. UK prices are higher than elsewhere, remember – and with no real need for it any more.
So this is a nasty example of the bane of Britain in the 2020s: Greedflation.
The major corporations are charging whatever they like for their products – especially the privatised former public utilities, who know they operate monopolies in particular parts of the UK.
There is no relationship between what they are charging for their products and the cost of providing them.
But the price they charge puts up the cost of living. People have to pay, otherwise they lose the service.
The result? UK inflation has gone through the roof.
And what are the Tories doing about it? They are victim-blaming.
Working people who are struggling to cope are calling for pay rises to accommodate these huge, greed-driven increases in the prices they have to pay, simply to survive.
And ministers in the Tory government are saying they would be responsible for inflation if they receive those increases.
That claim is – well, it’s what Peter Stefanovic describes it as, in this clip:
How many times do I have to debunk this. The Prime Ministers claim an above-inflation pay rise for our nurses & teachers will drive inflation is just another shameful LIE. If you are as sick of this as I am RT this widely pic.twitter.com/JadGjMq4IB
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) May 2, 2023
If you haven’t voted yet, then please take this into account if/when you do. And remember that Labour wouldn’t increase wages either!
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Politicians won’t lift a finger to stop this outright greed because they, themselves are in the pockets of the petrochemical companies. They are as greedy and corrupt as those that bribe them