GSK has too much at stake to exit China That is the rationale behind Sir Andrew's commitment that GSK will "earn the trust of Chinese people again." Major's 'windfall tax" is no fix for energy crisis There was a delicious irony in Sir John Major advocating a windfall profits tax on the energy companies - one of the policies proposed and eventually enacted by his Labour nemesis, Tony Blair, back in 1997. Not that the former Labour prime minister ever put it in quite as emotive terms as his Tory counterpart, who claimed earlier this week that some customers would have to make a choice between keeping warm and feeding themselves. Sir John believes a windfall tax on profits could fund the higher social costs, for which he believes the Treasury will inevitably become liable. This might work as populist politics, but, as economics, it's nonsense. If the utilities are profiteering, which is debatable given their profit margins are typically around 5pc, then the market must be reformed or the prices regulated. The energy companies reacted calmly to David Cameron's announcement of a wide-ranging review of the industry, confident they have nothing to fear from another investigation. A windfall tax, however, is quite another matter. It is another cost for providers, and will invariably eventually be passed on to consumers. To introduce a new tax to subsidise consumers is therefore at best a zero-sum game and at worst just another form of redistributive meddling. There are two underlying reasons why prices are going up. One is that energy costs are rising, with pressure of global demand on still relatively constrained supply. The other is the Government's own decarbonisation agenda - pioneered by Labour leader Ed Miliband when he was Energy Secretary, and enthusiastically endorsed by the Conservatives while they were still in their "Hug A Husky" phase. It is imposing very high extra costs on the industry that have to be paid for somehow or other. The Prime Minister's promise to cut green taxes, which add £112 to a typical household bill, according to government figures, is very welcome and long overdue. It is all very well suggesting a windfall profits tax on the utilities to tide the country over a tough winter, but if the long-term consequences are that the industry won't invest - and SSE, for one, insists it has invested more in the UK and Ireland for each of the past five years than it made in profit - then it makes no sense. Sir John's proposal is no more of a solution than is Ed Miliband's economically illiterate price freeze.