It is ‘obscene’ and ‘an insult to working families’, according to the TUC. If there was one thing more predictable than the doubling of profits of the energy giant Shell – given that the stuff it sells has soared in price over the last year – it was the storm of protest that it ran into following the announcement today.

‘No company should be making these kind of outrageous profits out of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine,’ said the Lib Dem leader Ed Davey. Inevitably, there are now calls for higher windfall taxes, and even for state-ownership. But hold on? Shouldn’t we celebrate a major British company making lots of money, rather than condemn it?

There is no question that Shell had a good year. The company reported profits of $40 billion (£32 billion), almost double last year. It will be returning plenty of that cash to shareholders, both in the form of higher dividends and share buy-backs. If we had a couple of tankers of LNG for every outraged comment in the Guardian we probably would not be paying so much to heat our homes.

There is no doubt that $40 billion is a lot of money, even if we keep in mind that this is a global giant in a huge industry. Even so, most of the criticism aimed at Shell is misplaced. First, commodity company profits always go in cycles. When prices are high you make a ton of money; when they are low, you lose a packet. Over time everything tends to even out. If Shell can’t make money in the good times there won’t be much left over in the bad.

Next, it is already paying vast taxes, in the UK, and the EU, on top of normal levels of corporation tax. If all the profits you make are confiscated we can hardly be surprised if companies eventually give up completely.

Finally, there is already evidence energy taxes are deterring investment, most of all in the North Sea, but elsewhere as well. And yet, we desperately need more energy production, not less, if we are to bring prices back down again.

Despite all the cries of condemnation, we should be celebrating a major British company making record profits. The UK does not have many world-leading companies any more, nor is its economy in great shape. We can all argue about how to get the economy growing again – but surely the one thing we can agree on is that constantly attacking one of our leading companies for being successful is hardly the best place to start.