According to (ref article), the UK government's attitude to the last couple of decades of energy policy has undergone a dramatic change. It is remarkable to see ministers complaining about high prices created by the negative results of deregulation, when the current increases were both predictable and expected.

The rush to build gas-fired power plants without factoring in the likely effect of minimal European reserves, and the break-up and sale of a functional utility sector at generous discounts, is now producing effects which should be no surprise to anyone, least of all Mr Darling and his Treasury colleagues.

For twenty years the UK has lectured about the irrelevance of long term energy planning and the virtues of reliance on the markets - which supposedly not only create lower prices for consumers but guarantee stability of supply. It's hard today not to feel schadenfreude when the result turns out to be higher prices and increasingly precarious supply for both consumers and businesses.

Unregulated markets do not deliver lower prices and long-term stability, they deliver higher profits infected with rampant short-termism. This creates chaotic supply conditions and makes energy price planning by industry almost impossible.

Enron proved this, and now Mr Darling is finding out why he should have perhaps have been paying attention to recent history in the US. The rest of Europe meanwhile has understood this all along; unfortunately common wisdom in the UK still seems to lagging some way behind common sense.