Peter Hitchens, writing in the Daily Mail, warns that Britain's power system is precariously close to a "disastrous blackout" that could cripple the economy and take days to repair. He contends that the nation's pursuit of Net Zero targets has undermined the reliability of the National Grid, creating a situation where power failures could become commonplace.
Hitchens draws on personal experience, describing the "sinister ghostly groan" of his own power dying as an omen of future widespread outages. He contrasts the current vulnerability with a past where the grid was considered "solid and reliable." The columnist cites the example of June 23, when a major nuclear station, Sizewell B in Suffolk, was offline, highlighting a specific instance of power transmission crisis in the country. He states that in locations like Baghdad and Mogadishu, he has witnessed the severe impact on modern life when power fails, implying a similar fate could befall Britain.
He asserts that the "long-running Net Zero attack on what was once a solid and reliable National Grid" has left the country in danger of prolonged periods of darkness and silence. The potential consequences, according to Hitchens, extend beyond mere inconvenience, threatening to send the economy "stumbling over the precipice."