If you are an observer of energy policy over time things have a habit of repeating themselves. I suppose this is the same for any area of human endeavour but it seems ever more recurrent in our particular patch.

Outgoing Chief Executive of Ofgem, Alistair Buchanan, issued a stark warning yesterday one that should be taken seriously. However, when he reached his 769th word he began a sentence that hit the nub of alternatives to just burning more.

Even as the young Year 2013 begun to make its first few tentative steps our Energy Minister John Hayes was busy firing up the debate and at the same time entertaining us with his repartee. Regaling us in the House Magazine (the trade mag for Parliamentarians) about his boxing exploits and his childhood on a council estate in South London. And yet this is a politician who has also wowed the political arena with his knowledge of philosophy and his soaring rhetoric.

What were we to make of it? A senior Minister going apparently off message whilst quoting incomprehensible Austrian philosophers and a Secretary of State allegedly gagging his Departmental Ministerial colleague. Welcome to energy policy in the autumn of 2012.

There has been much talk about what the PM said to outgoing and incoming Ministers during the reshuffle the other week. Every politician knows it is “the revolving door of politics” but despite this the shock, disappointment or jubilation is always acute.

When Nigel Lawson announces his satisfaction with where the Government was going, is a Government described by its leader as “the greenest government ever” suddenly losing its green hue?

The end of Charles Hendry’s tenure as Energy Minister, in many people’s eyes and indeed ENA’s, was premature. The mark of the man was the email he sent to staff at DECC after his departure.