In The Dark

‘LEEDS has been voted the favourite UK city by readers of Conde Nast Traveller – ‘arguably the most discerning travellers in the land’.

Leeds, City Of Lights

‘Visitors found that they could enjoy such shopping meccas as the upmarket department store Harvey Nichols or the country’s first Marks & Spencer and stay in one of several boutique hotels such as 42 The Calls,’ says the Independent.

It also has the distinct advantage over London (which came in second) that it has electricity 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Today is the two-week anniversary of the worst blackout in a decade when a large part of the capital was plunged into darkness and passengers stranded on the Tube.

And we now know the reason – a contractor had installed the wrong fuse…two years ago.

The 1,000-amp relay was mistakenly put in place in June 2001 rather than a 5,000-amp relay and had lain undetected ever since.

National Grid said it was an isolated incident, blaming ‘a sod’s law sequence of events’ for the 41-minute shutdown on August 28.

In other words, two weeks on we’re just as much in the dark as we were that night.

But at least it can be said that never was so much owed by so many to some fuse.’

Posted: 11th, September 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink