Martin Vander Weyer: Freeze gas bills, freeze fuel duty – and one day we’ll all freeze in the dark

‘We need successful energy companies in Britain, we need them to invest for the future,’ said Ed Miliband in his conference speech, as though channelling my thoughts at the very moment I was writing last week’s item on the lack of a national energy strategy. Then he ruined it: ‘If we win the election, the next Labour government will freeze gas and electricity prices until the start of 2017. That’s what I mean by a government that fights for you.’

And that’s what we all mean by politicians making ill-conceived promises for short-term gain. George Osborne’s response? ‘Any politician would love to tell you that they can wave a magic wand and freeze your energy bill… Companies would just jack up their prices before the freeze… And companies would not invest… and build the power stations we need — so in the long term, prices go up. That’s Labour’s offer: get hammered with high prices now, get hammered with high prices later… But don’t worry, there’s a phony freeze in between.’

Of course Osborne understands the need for investment in gas and nuclear generating capacity, but like Miliband his priority is to win votes — hence his half-promise to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this parliament. To find out whether anyone is really focused on the looming energy crisis, we have to return to the Lib Dem conference in Glasgow and force ourselves to listen to Ed Davey, who holds the coalition’s energy and climate change portfolio. And yes, it’s a tedious mishmash of eco-bollocks about ‘green growth’ and ‘the battles I fight over wind power’, combined with a sideswipe at his cabinet colleague Owen Paterson for ‘culling wind turbines faster than he can cull badgers’. Not one of this trio offered a hint as to how we’re going to keep the lights on.