More haste, less speed. In injecting urgency into its energy policy last year, the government wanted to make up for time it had wasted trying to duck the nuclear question. But, as it has found out to its cost, public consultation on a contentious issue is not a process that can be rushed. Now a High Court judgment has branded the energy consultation "procedurally unfair" and "very seriously flawed". The ruling in favour of campaign group Greenpeace is set to delay the UK's nuclear energy strategy while a fresh round of consultation is held. The government should use this opportunity to take a more effective lead in trying to win public acceptance for what remains a necessary but deeply divisive element in the UK's energy policy.

Even for an administration that is practised at shrugging off disobliging assessments of how it is performing, Mr Justice Sullivan's remarks make embarrassing reading. He declared that the consultation process provided no information of substance on two key issues - disposal of waste and the economics of building new reactors. On waste, he said that the information available during the process was "not merely inadequate but misleading". "There could be no proper consultation, let alone the fullest consultation if the substance of these two issues was not consulted on before a decision was made."