Sunak's windfall tax

Many thanks to Luke at The Conversation for publishing my instant reaction here: https://theconversation.com/rishi-sunaks-15-billion-cost-of-living-package-and-windfall-tax-four-experts-respond-183945

However, it was toned down a bit - what I actually submitted was this:

With 12 million households expected to be in fuel poverty when Ofgem raises the energy price cap again in October, Sunak’s announcement that a mere 8 million households will receive paltry sums of money that will only cover a fraction of those price increases is frankly insulting. When we talk about fuel poverty we often talk about the ‘heat or eat’ dilemma, but between rising energy prices and rising food prices we are now heading towards a winter when large numbers of people will be struggling to do either. In any rational society this should lead to rioting on the streets, but between these crises and the pandemic we now have a populace so ground down that they have neither the energy nor the will to fight back. Welcome to UK-style disaster capitalism. Welcome to a ‘Great’ Britain led by a Prime Minister who is a brazen liar, and a Chancellor who is completely out of touch with the working poor, and who must either be in cahoots with the fossil fuel industry or so absolutely terrified of upsetting them that he is unable to put the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable ahead of those of some of the most powerful companies in the world. Both have now proven that they are unfit for office.  

Let’s not forget that the fossil fuel industry has spent billions on lobby against measures to tackle climate change and stymie the growth of renewable energy, and their successes will cost the people and governments of this planet huge sums of money as we have to rectify and adapt to the damage they have done. Today’s announcement should not come with a sunset clause, indeed it should be followed with long-term taxation on their historical profits from contributing to the climate crisis and then, if we are to have any hope of averting it, national and international plans to manage the decline of the industry and completely eliminate it by 2050.