A day after households were warned average annual energy bills could hit £3,850 from January - triple the level at the beginning of this year - Centrica, which owns British Gas, posted operating profits of £1.34 billion in the six months to the end of June - five times the same period in 2021. 

Shell, meanwhile, posted record earnings of $11.4 billion (nearly £10 billion) for the three-month period from April to June and promised to give shareholders payouts worth £6.5 billion.

 

Rishi Sunak thinks it's the right thing to privatise Channel 4.

Liz Truss, when questioned on the subject, stated that she 'likes to see companies operating in the private sector.'

To privatise Channel 4, their argument goes, will increase their capacity to compete with streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon.

Netflix shares have plummeted this year after they lost 200 000 subscribers: $50 billion wiped off their value.

Meanwhile Channel 4 reported its strongest ever financial performance whilst continue to develop their remit:

'to champion unheard voices, to innovate and take bold risks, to inspire change in the way we live our lives, to stand up for diversity across the UK.'

 

It is easy for Truss to say she 'likes to see companies operating in the private sector.'   

She promises us that she is the one to give us everything we need, lowering taxes and borrowing to cover the costs of her promises.

Promises are easy to make - especially in a leadership contest when they promise the world.

Both Truss and Sunak have been serving in the government that have brought us to these dire straits - spiralling cost of living and slipping into recession - but they bear no responsibility. It's astonishing really.

They are not held to account. No: they vie to become the next leader of the country.

 

We all know that if Channel 4 is privatised profit will become the primary motive. 

Truss and Sunak won't hold Centrica and Shell to account for their rampant and unhindered profiteering - at a time when people are struggling so hard. Of course not.  And nor do they care about the impact on Channel 4 and its audience if it's sold off. 

We can certainly expect a culling of programming that is not ensuring maximum profits.  We can certainly expect the new owners to be risk averse.  They won't be bold champions of new talent.  They won't be champions of new voices all around the UK.

It's not in the interest of profit to protect the broad range of independent programming that speaks to our diverse communities. 

It is not in the interest of profit to protect independent news and investigative journalism.  

It makes no sense to privatise Channel 4 and there is massive public resistance to it going ahead.

Of course we can speculate about their motives. 

And the speculations would probably be accurate.

Profit over people is a model that is wrecking lives and wrecking the planet.  It needs to change.

 

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