It is one year since David Cameron summoned the biggest power companies to an “energy summit” at Downing Street where they were ordered to keep bills down for hard-pressed consumers.

In a joint article previewing that event, the prime minister and the energy secretary (one Chris Huhne) expressed their determination to see a fall in prices.

“Speaking before the meeting, Huhne told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that the government would be on the consumers’ side to ensure they got a better deal“, as the Guardian reported at the time.

Often this stuff gets written up without any comeback; so how has the situation improved since then? Read more

By Chris Cook

Correspondence between Prince Charles and government ministers must remain secret, the government has decided.

Dominic Grieve, the attorney-general, is using a ministerial veto that has been deployed only four times, to block publication of the documents.

The letters had been requested by the Guardian newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act. This veto overturns a ruling by the upper tribunal, a higher court, that ruled in favour of disclosure. Ministers have used the veto in three other cases, to block disclosures relating to the Iraq war, Scottish devolution and NHS reform. The Prince has caused controversy in the past with his advocacy of causes from homeopathy, a reversion to “traditional” teaching methods to his dislike for modern Read more