Gary, Hitchin, Labour could have reversed Thatcher and her privatisation policies, but no, true Labour they just take the money, nothing has ever changed with Labour since Wilson's time in the 60's!

David, Nottingham, UK

Our love affair with energy consumption drives the prices and the profits--much of which will be invested in researching alternative energy sources by the energy majors. Current energy sources are very much a function of supply and demand; as supply is finite, prices will fall if demand softens.

John Gibbons, Castlebar, Ireland

Miss Dee is absolutely right. When you turn essential services over to private companies whose raison d'etre is to realise a profit, who do you think will be served? Customers or shareholders? I'm amazed that people are surprised by this.

Josh S, Manchester,

It may be £992m profit, but that is still only a 10% return on their revenue of £10bn, not all that much. Plus that is pre-tax, which at an effective rate of 58% drops the profit to approx £410m, or less than a 5% return. How many of you would be happy if you ran a business and made only 5% profit?

Sam, Cardiff,

Thatcher and her privatisation policies has a lot to answer for.

Wearing a jumper, what effect will that have on a company that's making 2bn a year profit?

They need to be forced to charge a single tarriff across the whole of Europe - then see what happens.

Gary, Hitchin,

Everyone please stop whining and do the maths. They made a profit of £992 million, then paid £575 million in taxes, leaving an after-tax profit of £416 million. Their revenue was roughly £10 billion, which means their profit margin was a paltry 4.16%. That's hardly unreasonable.

Neil, London, UK

And all this is set against a background of 200 years of coal available to the British. See British Coal Authority report of September 2001 to the Cabinet which contrasts that figure against only 50 years of petro/oil fuel available. That really is kindergarden economics even for Brown.

Robert Norris, Hull. , East Yorks.,

Who are these people who make these decisions? Executives who cream off so much money and leave everyone else to survive on whatever they can. Welcome to the selfish drive of the 21st century....

Michael , London, UK

...Easy! You just pay less on your bill - you pay what you think it should be (within common sense, of course). My son sells EDF at Sainsburys and says it is not just them, it's all the gas companies that have rallied... Can the EU help sort these price hikes? Or are they there in name only?

Ann, Fl, USA,

No, the french pay less because EDF are essentially the french government, and they use the revenue raised from us, to subsidise their domestic customers for political benefit. Privatisation of energy companies and subsequent ownership by a foreign government has shafted us good and proper.

Steve , Norwich,

Beth from Northampton. Energy is more and more a global resource now and increasingly these firms are larger and operate over larger geographic areas. If you don't buy the energy....someone else probably will. But a sweater and a lower thermostat do make sense anyways.

phil, sacramento, usa

Its entertainig because I just read the New York Times which reported approx 11 billion qarter profits for Exxon-Mobile. It was said so passingly ! No comment from consumers stateside, apparently

Kat, Blacksburg, VA, USA

There is one political party whose policies include the renationalisation of the former utilities to be run for the common good. Some may consider other policies of the BNP distasteful but I believe that this one merits some consideration

Phil, Keighley, West Yorkshire

So much for pricing equality and transparency in Europe! Plainly EDF need to be put out of business, their leaders imprisoned for racketeering. This is an excellent opportunity to re-invade France and finally put some good use to the Tunnel.

Will, Lincoln, UK

I suspect the french pay less because much more of their energy comes mostly from Hydroelectricity and Nuclear plants, rather than Natural Gas. Making them less sensitive to changes in the wholesale price of fossil fuels.

Ed, London,

Lets go nuclear.... We have the technology available to put the gas companies out of business

chris, Cardiff,

the problem is, us Brits as per usual will moan but take no action! I remember an old saying...actions speak louder than words; these companies only listen to action not words.

Paul hoque, Norwich, Norfolk

Agreed Miss Dee, but these are windfall profits and should be taxed as such!

Alan, Salina, Malta

It is not a question of legality, but morality. Companies normally have some sort of ethical policy. It just depends on the extent of the policy and how seriously it is followed. Without looking this up, it seems the energy companies either won't follow, or don't have such policies.

D Virdee, London,

How does EDF justify charging UK customers approx 12.6 pence per kW of electricity when they charge the French 0.6 pence - yes half of one penny - for each kW of electricity. If the situation were reversed the French would riot and the French government would force prices down. Brits

Tony Pugh, preston, UK

Enough is enough. Isn't it about time this spineless labour government stood up for the electorate who it supposedly represents, and slammed these profiteering & price-fixing energy companies where it hurts with massive windfall taxes?

Steven H, Bristol, UK

The energy companies are not doing anything illegal. If society is such a concern, then you shouldn't put a for-profit company with shareholders in charge. It's not rocket science. Centrica is just doing what comes natural.

Miss Dee, Tayside, UK

We need to rally together - don't put your heating on this winter put on an extra jumper and try to avoid using your cars. Lets force them to reduce prices!

Beth, Northampton, England