[okasaki]

From what I can recall, the UK government's plans and predictions have consistently been... over-optimistic.

Time to go to the local charity shop and buy some wool sweaters.

[AngusH]

Unfortunately the government (of all stripes) tends to reject predictions it doesn't like:

try this one from 20 years ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3034088.stm

(it's on this topic of energy)

[Chris_Newton]

It’s interesting sometimes to see how far we’ve come, despite all the immediate doom and gloom. The mix of UK energy supplies from that 2003 article was reportedly:

    Gas     38%
    Coal    32%
    Nuclear 23%
    Oil      4%
    Others   3%

Compare that to the use of renewables and the reduced dependency on fossil fuels today and at least we’ve taken some big steps in the right direction since then.

There isn’t much to like about the current situation, but it does mean the danger of relying on supplies of non-renewable fuels has been shown beyond any doubt. If we do experience one of the bad scenarios with rolling power cuts this winter, it must be near-certain that whoever forms the government for the rest of the 2020s will get elected on a very green platform. If important steps towards making us both more resilient and more environmentally friendly then get taken sooner, that’s one small victory at least.