Power and the People - by Arthur Downing (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

An argument for a revolution in the ownership of our national energy system, from leading industry insider.

Power and the People reveals how we got trapped in a broken system--and why it does not have to be this way. Downing tells the hidden history of how energy went from a public good to a private goldmine. Starting in the 1870s, he traces the rise and fall of Britain's energy infrastructure through five explosive turning points: the foundations of the grid, the consolidation of monopolies during the interwar years, the bold nationalisation of the 1940s, Thatcher's devastating privatisation of the 1980s, and the climate crisis that for-profit companies spectacularly failed to solve. Today, we're living with the wreckage. Zombie corporations stagger on with no vision beyond the next quarterly profit. Downing offers alternative futures of what is possible and what is urgently needed.

About the Author

Arthur Downing is a Strategy Director at Octopus Energy, the UK's largest electricity supplier, and Visting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics. He has worked across the energy industry, both in the private sector and as an advisor to government. Before working in energy, he was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University.