Power

In 1921, after 40 years of uncontrolled development, the UK had over 480 authorised suppliers of consumer electricity, at a variety of voltages and frequencies, with very little regulation or standardisation. In 1926, the British government initiated the construction of a unified national supply, governed by a central authority under political control. The Prime Minister of the day spoke of "the benefits of having a regulated electricity supply network, with an affordable and abundant electricity supply, regardless of social status or where someone lived". Within 10 years, 6,500km of transmission lines had been installed, carried by architect-designed pylons, erected against some deep-seated grass-roots opposition. By 1939, two-thirds of British homes were connected to the National Grid, receiving electricity from the government-owned Central Electricity Generating Board

This was the work of a Conservative government, led by Stanley Baldwin, who recognised that France and Germany were making a better job of rolling out the new technology, and that Britain needed a collective national effort to keep up. A while ago, I saw a very good documentary about the organisational and logistical effort needed to get the grid in place, which conveyed a real sense of national pride in the collaborative effort to push the country into the modern world 

It's sobering to compare this with our current commitment, or lack of it, to the installation of an electric vehicle charging infrastructure, and the underlying political hesitancy in making it happen. Perhaps we are still in the analogue of that 40-year hiatus before a political decision was made. Perhaps Keir Starmer is the Stanley Baldwin of our days. Perhaps

Our village "low-carbon group" are planning to install a local micro-grid "enabling us to store and use locally-generated solar power at our sports and social club, in homes being built by our community land trust and in five of the existing fleet of six community-owned EVs". Times change

We have lived here for a few weeks short of ten years and, since the beginning, we had an aspiration to have a substantial garden shed/workshop, with lighting and a power supply. Today, for the first time, we got the shed connected to the National Grid. Our own 10-year project