Flag this message Energy taxes; health tourism; and MPs payFriday, 5 July, 2013 11:34

Politicians should be doing everything they can to limit the pressure on household energy bills. Instead they are adding to the amount that you are paying by promising fat subsidies to companies who invest in expensive sources of energy like onshore and offshore wind turbines. Offshore wind costs three times as much as conventional energy but the Government want us to use a lot more of it, even if that means more pressure on people’s finances and more jobs lost as industry is driven overseas. With the new Stop the Energy Swindle campaign, we are doing something about it. Exposing the rip-off and then working with supporters like you to put pressure on politicians together. The same approach that secured the first cut in beer duty since the 1950s.  I hope you can help by writing to your own MP and then encouraging other people to do the same by sharing EnergySwindle.org through social media, emailing your friends and family or coming along to one of our grassroots events. - Matthew Sinclair, Chief Executive Stop the Energy Swindle in the media The campaign launched with a feature in the Daily Mail and now we are keeping up the pressure. I wrote for The Spectator about how some investors are making rich profits out of ineffective subsidies from home energy bills. Stop the Energy Swindle in your town Stop the Energy Swindle street stalls are coming to Bath, Canterbury, Cardiff, Colchester, Darlington, Islington, Salisbury, Swansea, and Warrington starting this weekend.Find out more here and let us know if you would like to help organise a stall near you. NHS Tourism The Government has no real idea how much foreign patients are costing the NHS but there are lots of stories emerging that suggest abuse is widespread. I debated the issue on Sky News and we are going to investigate further. Pay for MPs We don’t think that MPs should get a pay rise while ordinary taxpayers are struggling and public sector pay is supposed to be frozen and then increasing by 1% a year.  John O’Connell argued against a rise on Sky News. More than €100 million in EU grants for green groups Organisations like Friends of the Earth and the European Environmental Bureau have received millions of pounds in grants at taxpayers' expense to lobby for regulations, many of which add to home energy bills.