Comment – Resilience

As I write this on Friday morning, Heathrow Airport is closed, with over 120 inbound flights being diverted and no news on when the airport will open again.

Last week, a tanker full of US military aviation fuel, was rammed, whilst at anchor, in daylight in the Humber estuary, and it turns out the mariner in charge of the Portuguese registered freighter which struck the tanker, was Russian.

The reason I am, quite possibly incorrectly, joining some dots here, is not to attribute blame, interpretation of global news of this variety is way above my pay grade. No, it’s to simply say that we are vulnerable, as an island nation, we rely on French electricity via a selection of cables in La Manche. Ditto oil and gas interconnects from Norway, Germany and the Netherlands by way of North Sea oil and gas fields. Before we even start talking about food.

So what does resilience look like, in a week when the French Government is issuing the population with a ‘Survival manual’ ? I’m not sure, but maybe have a couple of freezers, a generator and some cash to hand. That or it’s just that my parents lived through World War 2?

Its interesting that this week an international study reckons that rooftop solar could deliver the bulk of the worlds electricity, and the UK Government is rolling out solar on hospitals and schools.

Have a good week.

Andy

PS if you are struggling to sleep, you could do worse than listen to this weeks Farmers Guardian podcast where yours truly and Machinery & technology Editor Toby Whatley battle it out on Tariffs and what it all means.