Until recently Ed Miliband was only really known as the over-enthusiastic Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. One of his first moves was to push through the Climate Change Act, mandating a cut in UK Carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. As MP’s dutifully filed through the ‘aye’ lobby they were lacking one key fact: how much would it all cost? Despite the best efforts of several backbench Tories there is yet to be a definitive answer.

Alex Salmond, spotting a chance to claim a policy as his own, responded by announcing the Climate Change (Scotland) Act. The only difference was a small increase in the intermediate target.

At least the Scots had the decency to, belatedly, estimate the cost of this misguided policy. Their figure? £8billion of central funding over the next ten years – just to cut emissions in the public sector. That’s without considering the economic effect on private businesses struggling to meet unrealistic targets. If that’s the cost to a country of 5 million people, shouldn’t someone point out that UK plc is looking at a bill of almost £100 billion in the next decade…