In the end it only took me an extra hour to get home last night. I may have waited 20 minutes for a train that didn’t come; got a bus to a tube that wasn’t going anywhere; sat on the tube for 10 minutes in the station; got off the tube; shared a taxi to Islington; got on another (surprisingly on-time and quick) train to Richmond; and finally got another taxi home, but it could have been a lot worse. If I’d left a little earlier I would have probably been stuck in a tunnel [CAUTION: article satisfies legal obligation to make reference to “Blitz spirit”].

The only reason I mention it, is because the whole London power-cut incident brought to mind a rather prescient article by David Aaronovitch in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago following the one in New York: “Stiff upper lip? Don’t make me laugh“.

Read it first, and then you may want to read these:

“Demand for power cut answers”
“Tube sell-off blamed for blackout“