FOR MANY businesses, holding profits steady this year will be a miracle.
No matter how hard they work, some organisations won’t make any money at all. Even great British institutions like Marks and Spencer are finding it tough, so we should congratulate success in these trying times.
But when BP announced a 148 per cent increase in profits, closely followed by Shell’s 72pc, it seemed like greed rather than an achievement to be celebrated.
Surely the Government has mechanisms to prevent public exploitation in the supply of such an essential commodity as oil? If not, then they don’t deserve to be in power.
We knew the world price of oil was soaring – what we didn’t know was petroleum companies were using the financial turmoil to inflate their own profits.
Racking up a five to 10pc increase in earnings as families and businesses struggle to cope with rocketing fuel costs is offensive enough, but 148pc is simply grotesque.
Why these companies have been allowed to exploit rising oil prices to generate monstrous profits while heaping misery on millions of hard working families is a mystery only Gordon Brown can answer.
The views on this page are Vic Barlow's and not necessarily those of the Express
