Why I'm stockpiling candles

The government's energy strategy - or lack of it - pretty much guarantees power cuts in the not too distant future, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

There was a power cut in my neighbourhood on Tuesday night. At around 7pm the lights dimmed, then went out. We looked out of the window. Nothing. No street lights and, apart from a few candles in the homes of the well prepared, no light from any of the other houses.

For a few minutes it was mildly entertaining (for the children, at least). Then it got a bit irritating. I had work to do, but the computer was out of action. The children wouldn't go to bed ("it's too dark"). We couldn't cook anything for supper.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.