When I was a bright young engineer I was involved in the manufacture of the supply of gas (later "British Gas") and also the control of supplies ("National Grid"). At that time the gas industry had to provide gas for a peak demand based on a week that would occur once in 20 years. So for 1039 weeks of the 1040 weeks in the 20 years the industry had excess unused capacity that the customer was paying for. (And in fact were there to be a shortfall the gas would be shut off to industrial users and not households).Originally Posted by Mike T
I suggest if the taxpayer had been told the NHS was providing PPE for a rainy day that on average might occur once in twenty years (1 in a 1000), rather than buying the latest MRI kit, questions would be asked and very loudly if the justification was for an as-yet-unknown pandemic.
