Oh, there is definitely price collusion happening - just take one look at the way the Oil futures contracts are traded, and the massive bets being placed on sites like Kalshi and Polimarket.

But that’s impacting every nation, not just us - the leash is getting yanked much higher up the food chain than people like to point the finger here domestically at Shell/BP etc. & all thanks to the US and Israeli attacks on Iran damaging or destroying something like ~40% of all Middle East oil refining capacity.

Bit of a tangent, but I honestly think we need to step out from behind the US’s skirt at some point, they have proven to no longer be a reliable and trustworthy partner.

But what do we do beyond that, to ensure our national sovereignty - and prevent us getting Ukraine’d or Iran’d - short of developing and stockpiling our own nuclear arsenal?