The BBC has reportedly prepared a string of secret scripts to be read out on air in case of blackouts amid energy shortages this winter.
A newspaper outlet said the scripts would advise the public to use their car radios or battery-powered devices to tune into emergency BBC broadcasts via FM frequencies and would strive to keep the public notified in the event of a major loss of power.
One script seen by a reporter allegedly warns that a blackout could last for up to two days, with hospitals and police placed under extreme pressure, while another said the government has said it’s hoped power would be restored after 36 to 48 hours.
The scripts are said to have been produced as part of the BBC’s role in broadcasting vital health and safety communications to the public on behalf of the government in the event of national emergencies.
A newspaper outlet has contacted the BBC for comment.
It comes as National Grid chief executive John Pettigrew said the firm may need to introduce rolling power cuts across Britain in January and February, should the country fail to secure enough gas reserves from Europe.
Talking to the Financial Times’s Energy Transition Summit earlier this week, John Pettigrew warned that Britain’s gas-fired power stations, which generate a considerable amount of the nation’s power, are encountering a significant lack of fuel.
According to a newspaper outlet, the BBC’s draft plan indicates that in a national blackout it would operate a reduced temporary radio service from the UK’s emergency broadcasting centre (EBC) in an unknown rural area.
EBC service would deliver periodic news bulletins on Radio 4’s FM and long wave frequencies and a music service, with news updates on the FM spectrum used by Radio 2.
The broadcasts are designed to keep the public up-to-date on important safety information, deliver updates on the severity and duration of blackouts, and encourage citizens to abstain from putting undue pressure on emergency services unless absolutely necessary.
In the event of a blackout, mobile phone networks, internet access, cash points and traffic lights are among some of the services that would fail.
The risk of blackouts recalls the 1970s when strikes by miners and railway employees forced Ted Heath’s government to introduce planned power cuts to preserve energy.
Energy regulator Ofgem has said British households should lower their gas and electricity use where possible this winter to help cut costs and decrease the chance of power cuts.
Ah yes, we’re back to the Blitz spirit where everyone will be crowded around in the cold and dark listening to the transistor radio, only we’re not waiting for the bombs to start falling, we’re just waiting for a blackout. It appears that technology hasn’t gone forward, it’s gone back to the forties.
And yet the government has pushed electric cars onto us, enforced a prohibition on new petrol cars and slapped emission charges left right and centre, yet there are going to be blackouts. It seems the last laugh is on us, and what about those ridiculous windmills that were supposed to be the solution to all of our energy needs?
The route that things are on at the moment, well, I can see our society utterly crumpling in the winter months because there’s been colossal mismanagement of our economy and infrastructure and it’s been criminal. Our country is ruined.
So, there could be an energy supply crisis, but they must have backup reserves, don’t they? With the extra loading for the millions of EVs and heat pumps, they were expecting to roll into our homes and roads. They wouldn’t have been encouraging people to buy into the green policy agenda if it wasn’t viable, would they?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 