Government to Tackle Ideas Poverty

The current – well, current when this item was being written – Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans to combat ideas poverty in Britain.

Announcing a range of half-baked schemes to make it look like he cares about rising fuel costs, Mr Brown unveiled funding of £2.50 to Citizens’ Advice Bureaux to tell people how to save energy, a 99p grant to householders who install their own wind and solar generators, and a proposal to divulge poor people’s confidential details to energy companies in the vague hope that they might shed a tear and offer more competitive tariffs.

Campaigners, however, say the plans will make little difference, and that Mr Brown’s terrible poverty of imagination will continue to leave people cold.