The unholy alliance that's behind the energy rip-off
NOW that the unrelenting gaze of public opinion is focused upon them, the big power companies are being found out for the profiteering they have indulged in.
So much for their excuse that doubledigit price rises are justified by the wholesale energy market. Authoritative figures from industry regulator Ofgem show that they are not.
For years this newspaper warned governments of all parties that competition in the domestic energy market had become enfeebled and that consumers were being exploited.
But politicians chose to turn a blind eye, very possibly because their own trendy green energy policies were also adding hundreds of pounds to bills.
Now, with power bills having turned into one of the biggest items of any household's expenditure, the energy racket has become a public scandal.
Today representatives of the "Big Six" suppliers will face searching questions about their pricing policies from MPs on the Energy and Climate Change select committee.
It is to be hoped that the MPs give them a tough time but equally nobody should forget that these very MPs are among the most hard-line advocates of enormous taxes on carbon emissions and huge subsidies for wind turbines - both of which push bills up further.
The key question is who, in these exchanges, will be sticking up for consumers and taxpayers? And the suspicion is that nobody will be at all.