There is much debate currently in the context of the cost of living crisis facing the population of the United Kingdom as to whether the government should levy Windfall taxes on the Oil and Energy companies for the high levels of extra profits they have declared over the past few months.
The position of the Conservative and Libertarian Party of the United Kingdom is that Windfall taxes are not the answer to to the situation given that the war in Ukraine is not likely to last very much longer and common sense will prevail once the dust has settled. Ukraine has proven to be a strong country with its economy and military to resist the Russian invasion of the country and Vladamir Putin in all likelihood is not going to prolong the war given the vast number of casualties that it has suffered and will suffer with the backing that Ukraine has from western democracies in terms of arms and other forms of support such as the strong economic sanctions imposed on Russia. Negotiations may begin to declare a cease fire and come to a common understanding that Ukraine must never be allowed to join Nato as it is a buffer State between Nato and Russia.
The world will not stand idly by and prevent the export of essential commodities from Ukraine and Russia into the rest of the world for the dire consequences that will have on food security in much of these countries. Already the there is is high inflation in most countries as a consequence of the war in Ukraine and economic recession looms.
We support the stance that the government of the United Kingdom is taking to defer any windfall taxes on Oil and Energy companies until after the war in Ukraine comes to some kind of stalemate and ceasefire results. We view that Russia did not invade Ukraine unprovoked and had a legitimate grievance against the western powers bolstering the military State of Ukraine as a direct threat to Russia since the right and proper annexation of Crimea that was democratically endorsed by the inhabitants of Crimea in 2014. When Russia failed to take Kyiv it turned its attention to the Dombas region to develop a land corridor to the Crimea to counter the threat to its security.
The ball is in Volodomyr Zelensky's court as to what Ukraine will settle for in terms of its territorial integrity and sovereignty and at what cost to itself and its neighbours. Ukraine should be supported with weapons and humanitarian assistance if it asks for these of the western powers, but otherwise the western powers should stay out of the conflict. There must be no international bids to try anyone for war crimes by the International Criminal Court as it is a defunct organisation and will exacerbate the conflict in the medium to long term because Russia will see that as confirmation that the Court is an arm of the western powers including Nato.
This brings us to what we should in the United Kingdom do about our economy. We support Boris Johnson's government that operates on the basis of ingenuity to solve problems day by day according to ground realities as in the Northern Ireland Protocol Treaty revision for the matter is not for the European Union to interfere with, it is solely for the United Kingdom to determine how to support another part of the Union with the the interflow of goods and services. The will of the Democratic Unionist Party is paramount in this respect. So also the matter of windfall taxes on Oil and energy companies. Companies operating in the United Kingdom should be left with their capital to invest as they see the free market developing and it is the government's job to facilitate this through modifications of taxes on businesses. We believe in a free market economy.