The worry is that if Mr Byers cannot make up his mind on relatively low-key issues like milk and ice cream, how will he be able to resist the far more serious pressures that will be exerted on him over car prices and supermarkets, both currently the subject of competition inquiries?

ECONOMIST: Stephen Byers is making a mess of competition policy

Others are being forced through, willy-nilly, by business needs and by the growing demands of shareholders, or else by European Union rules on competition and by global economic pressures.

ECONOMIST: Has Gerhard got it?

Today there are inflationary pressures rising from population growth, competition for energy and natural resources, and from the rising middle class of the Bric countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

BBC: The beginnings of 'financial repression'?

Cost pressures, namely competition from cheaper foreign fertilizer, caused other domestic plants to fold, many in the wake of the natural gas price spike after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

FORBES: Redolent