Energy consumers can be forgiven if they feel a little underwhelmed by regulator Ofgem's decision to recommend an inquiry into gas and electricity prices.

Energy Secretary Ed Davey is deluded if he thinks this proposal will "help clear the air."

It sometimes seems that the past two decades of privatisation have been an endless not-so-merry-go-round of warnings, inquiries and reviews into the rampant profiteering of the "big six" energy suppliers.

Such initiatives have all proved to be utterly worthless because they proceed from the assumption that utilities vital for human survival are best held in private hands and run for corporate profit in what is laughingly called a "competitive market."

When acknowledged at all, problems of poor service, unreliable supplies, escalating prices, under-investment or boardroom greed have invariably been attributed to some type of "market malfunction."

Bogus remedies are then proposed such as opening up the market to new suppliers, making bills and tariffs more transparent or encouraging consumers to switch suppliers.

Meanwhile, the big six oligopoly marches on. Markets are rigged, prices are raised remorselessly and wealthy directors and shareholders stagger all the way to the bank under the weight of their dividends, laughing at the massive fraud they continue to perpetrate on Britain's households and on every other sector of the economy.

It is difficult to see why the proposed Competition and Market Authority investigation will be any different from these previous feeble inquiries and reviews.

It will, however, provide the ideal pretext for not taking decisive action against the monopolies for at least the next 18 months while deliberations are dragged out.

Should Labour win next year's general election, will its promised price freeze also be put into cold storage until the CMA completes its work?

Instead of welcoming the CMA charade and asking that Ofgem be included under the microscope alongside the big six, Labour's shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint should be demanding that the whole energy sector be taken back into public ownership and made democratically accountable.

That was the basis on which Britain's electricity supply industry was hugely expanded and modernised in the decades following nationalisation in 1947.

There were no fat cats pocketing half of the profits over the following half century.

The surplus produced almost every year by public enterprise was reinvested in the industry, apart from that portion kept back to "compensate" previous owners for the loss of their largely clapped out assets.

The reaction of Centrica chief executive Sam Laidlaw to Ofgem's announcement only underlines how unfit today's fat cats are to be entrusted with the trusteeship of vital industries and resources.

With Britain's energy storage capacity at an all-time low, he threatens to prolong the investment drought while pocketing the super profits.

If Labour wants to win the general election and make a real difference to the lives of ordinary people, Flint and the rest of the shadow cabinet should emerge from their neoliberal coma and embrace public ownership. Now that would really clear the air.