UK consumers seem set to suffer a vicious round of electricity price rises in the near future: and for the first time the energy suppliers are not only blaming the gas market but openly pointing the finger at steadily escalating government green policies whose effect is to drive up utility bills.

ScottishPower retail director Raymond Jack, announcing swingeing consumer price rises which are likely to be matched by the other major energy companies, had this to say:

"The change in prices announced today is as a result of sustained increases in the wholesale energy market [but] the rising burden of non-energy costs faced by Britain's energy suppliers, including the cost of meeting Government environmental and social programmes and the cost of distributing electricity on the national grid, has also placed further upward pressure on energy bills."

It's rare that outright lies in the press make me really, really angry, but this piece of "analysis" certainly did.