James Kirkup James Kirkup

Who cares about a power cut in the north east?

Firefighters survey the damage after Storm Arwen (Getty images)

How long could you cope without electricity, dear reader? And how many days could you endure without running water? Imagine your home was without power or water for four or even five days. What would you expect to happen? How do you think your country and your government would respond to your plight? There’d be a bit of a fuss, right?

I mean, this is an advanced industrialised economy where we have, quite reasonably, come to take the supply of basic utilities as a given. If thousands of people were left without power, heat and water — and in winter too – for the better part of a week, it would be a deal, wouldn’t it?

Actually, no. Not if those people were somewhere in the north of England. In that case, most of the country would barely notice, much less care. As of late on Tuesday night, tens of thousands of people in north Northumberland were still without electricity, after a power cut that began last Friday when Storm Arwen blew through the county with winds nearing 100mph. A fair few of them also still had no running water.

Some people in Northumberland wonder what would have happened if thousands of people in North Dorset or Norfolk or — imagine it – North London had been cut off without power

Four days, I suggest, is quite a long time to go without light and, in some cases, heat. Here I must declare an interest: members of my family are among those who have been worst affected, though their lights came back on during Tuesday.

By local standards, they’re fortunate. Around 20,000 homes were still without electricity last night, according to the local MP, Anne-Marie Trevelyan. She gave that estimate based on information she got from Northern Powergrid (NPG), the company that operates local electricity networks.

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