THROUGHOUT perhaps the first 25 years or so of the 52 that my wife and I have lived in our present house in North Yorkshire the power supply was extremely unreliable. Scarcely any winter passed without a power failure, sometimes several.

We still possess the two oil lamps, two camping stoves and several candlesticks that provided light, and kept the kettle boiling, through each loss of power. But in recent years, though ever-ready, with spare mantles, gas canisters and candles, they have rarely been used. Milder winters have helped of course, but it seems certain the supply itself has been made more secure.

In other words, when we were formerly left without electricity it was most often because the supply had failed, rather than having been cut off. Everyone – every home, business and public service – faced this possibility equally. And it was for this reason that places whose electricity supply was a matter of life and death, notably hospitals, had back-up generators. Other than that, the playing field was level.

Therefore it is not, as a correspondent to this newspaper has suggested, “old news” that we could be heading for a future where, as he put it, “richer users pay for a higher reliability”. And if you read the remarks on which he based this claim it is clear that the man who made them, Andrew Wright, once interim chief executive of Ofgem, in which he is still a senior figure, did not believe he was conveying old news.

Explicitly signally ‘change’ he told a conference: “At the moment everyone has the same network, but this is changing and these changes will produce some choices for society.” Ah yes, ‘choices,’ that talismanic emblem of society ever since Margaret Thatcher. Mr Wright helpfully explained the choices: “We are currently all paying broadly the same price, but we could be moving away from that and there will be some new features of the market which may see some choose to pay for a higher level of reliability. One house may be sitting with the lights on, charging their Tesla electric car, while someone else will be sitting in the dark.”

Shame if you’re that “someone else”, eh? You could have made a different ‘choice,’ supposing your pocket was deep enough. As that Echo correspondent pointed out, you could also have invested in battery-operated lights, which he suggests “may become commonplace in private homes.” Thanks, but in Mead Mansion we’ll stick with our oil lamps and candles, far more romantic. We’re always loath to extinguish them when the power returns.

Whichever, that’s the lights taken care of. But what about heat? We have an open fire. But for most, no electricity means no heat – potentially fatal for some. As another correspondent to the Echo has said, this impending crisis stems from a crazy switch to renewable sources of energy, which fall dramatically short of providing a sufficient constant supply.

It mirrors a wider abandonment of universal provision. The universal standard-charge post is threatened. Health care is increasingly rationed. There’s no better time than Christmas to ask: “Is this Christian?” Though not a church-goer I like to think my seasonal good wishes to you are offered in that spirit.